Nvidia is the most valuable publicly traded company

Nvidia surpassed Microsoft to become the most valuable public company on Tuesday after its shares rose 3.6%, taking the market cap to $3.34 trillion.

Earlier this month, the chipmaker surpassed Apple to become the second-most valuable public company when it hit a $3 trillion market cap.

Nvidia’s stock has already increased by over 170% this year and multiplied ninefold since the end of 2022.

The surge is largely due to the demand for AI chips, where the company holds an 80% market share for chips used in data centers, driven by companies like OpenAI and Microsoft that are developing AI models.

Tech experts observe that the last time a computing infrastructure provider led the market was in March 2000 when Cisco, driven by the internet revolution, briefly surpassed Microsoft.

Founded in 1991, Nvidia originally focused on gaming hardware but has expanded its influence in AI technology, boosting co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s net worth to $117 billion.