Nvidia continued its meteoric rise on Thursday, hitting a market capitalization of $3.92 trillion, putting it on track to become the most valuable public company in history and surpassing Apple’s record of $3.915 trillion set in December 2024.
Shares of the California-based chipmaker rose as much as 2.4% in morning trading to $160.98, driven by sustained investor optimism surrounding the company’s dominance in artificial intelligence hardware.
Fueled by soaring demand for its high-performance processors used to train advanced AI models, Nvidia’s valuation has nearly octupled in just four years, skyrocketing from $500 billion in 2021 to near the $4 trillion mark today. The company’s current market value exceeds that of entire national stock exchanges, including those of Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, according to LSEG data.
Wall Street analysts attribute the surge to Nvidia’s pivotal role in the AI arms race among tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Tesla — all investing heavily in AI data centers powered by Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips.
“When the first company crossed a trillion dollars, it was amazing. And now you’re talking four trillion, which is just incredible,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading. “It tells you there’s this huge rush with AI spending and everybody’s chasing it.”
Microsoft, currently the second-most valuable company on Wall Street, saw its shares rise 1.7% to $499.56, bringing its valuation to $3.7 trillion. Apple followed in third place with a market value of $3.19 trillion after a 0.8% gain in its stock price.
Despite its historic climb, Nvidia is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of about 32 times projected earnings — well below its five-year average of 41 — reflecting how analysts’ earnings forecasts have kept pace with the company’s rapid growth.
Nvidia’s stock has rebounded more than 68% since April 4, when markets were rattled by former President Donald Trump’s global tariff threats. Expectations that the White House will secure trade agreements to offset those tariffs have since restored investor confidence.
With a 7.4% weighting on the S&P 500 index, Nvidia’s performance continues to wield significant influence over broader U.S. stock markets.
