American chipmaker Nvidia has become the first public company to reach a $US4 trillion ($6 trillion) market value, as the generative artificial intelligence boom continues to fuel demand for its processors.
The company reached the milestone on Wednesday, US time, when its share price rose to around $US165 ($250), after increasing almost 30 per cent in the past year.
Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) are specialised computer chips which have seen escalating demand, as they are heavily relied upon by companies and data centres to run AI workloads.
The company, which was founded in 1993, has seen its share price rise by more than 1,500 per cent over the past five years.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sold around $US36.4 million ($55 million) worth of his Nvidia stock last week, offloading 225,000 of around 6 million shares he said he planned to sell before the end of 2025.
The 62-year-old's net worth has risen by at least $US29 billion in the year to date, to around $US144 billion according to Bloomberg — making him one of the 10 richest people in the world.
Nvidia takes record-breaking reins from Apple
Nvidia’s rapid rise to the $US4 trillion mark comes amid slowed growth by Apple, which previously broke multiple market valuation records but has been relatively slow to capitalise on the generative AI boom.
Apple previously rode the success of its iPhone to become the first public and non-state-owned company to reach valuations of $US1 trillion, $US2 trillion, and $US3 trillion.
The company achieved the $US1 trillion feat in August 2018, by which time its share price had grown fourfold since Tim Cook replaced Steve Jobs as CEO in 2011.
Apple then hit $US2 trillion in August 2020 — doubling its valuation in just over two years — before reaching $US3 trillion in January 2022.
While Apple is still worth around $US3.15 trillion, it sits behind Nvidia and Microsoft in market capitalisation, but ahead of the likes of Amazon and Google.
Apple has publicly acknowledged it has been slow to implement generative AI technologies for users in the wake of the meteoric rise of OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT, and has delayed a series of AI updates to its own virtual assistant, Siri.
What’s more, Apple's former design chief Jony Ive is now working on AI-based consumer devices with OpenAI.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is now one of the 10 wealthiest people in the world. Image: Shutterstock
Nvidia CEO meets Trump before China trip
Jensen Huang met with US President Donald Trump on Thursday following Nvidia’s record-breaking valuation, and just days out from a scheduled trip to China.
Huang is set to hold a media briefing in Beijing on 16 July, where he is expected to again state the importance of the Chinese market to Nvidia’s continued growth.
The company has been restricted by the US government from selling its most advanced GPUs in China over fears they could be used by China's military.
Huang has met with Trump several times since January while the president has also been considering imposing US import tariffs on semiconductors, but the executive has reportedly said US tech firms will survive any further market turbulence.
“Nobody likes disruptions and no one likes abrupt changes, but these settlements will — President Trump will — settle these deals and countries will reorganise and resettle, and we'll work through it,” Huang told USA Today.
Huang and Nvidia have previously criticised the US government’s ban on shipping advanced GPUs to China, with Huang recently telling CNN the company wanted “the American tech stack to be the global standard".
“Our mission, properly expressed — in order for America to have AI leadership — is to make sure the American tech stack is available to markets all over the world,” Huang said.
“So that amazing developers, including the ones in China, are able to build on the American tech stack — so that AI runs best on the American tech stack.”
