Nvidia passed Microsoft in market capitalization on Tuesday, becoming the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

Shares of Nvidia rose approximately 3% to $141.40. The company’s stock has increased nearly 24% over the past month, showing continued momentum despite concerns related to export controls and tariffs.

The chipmaker now holds a market value of $3.45 trillion, slightly above Microsoft’s $3.44 trillion at the close of trading.

AI Demand Fuels Nvidia’s Growth

Nvidia’s rise has been fueled by demand for its AI chips, which are used by companies such as OpenAI to develop tools like ChatGPT.

The company reported adjusted earnings of 96 cents per share on $44.06 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter. That marks a 69% increase from the same period a year ago.

Tech Giants Drive AI Chip Purchases

Nvidia’s AI accelerators are being purchased in large quantities by companies including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and xAI. These chips are used to build extensive computing clusters for advanced AI development.

Nvidia has been trading places with Apple and Microsoft at the top of market cap rankings since June of last year. The last time Nvidia held the title of most valuable company was on January 24.

Chip Sector Gains Alongside Nvidia

Nvidia’s rise helped boost other semiconductor stocks. Broadcom gained 3%, Micron Technology added 4%, and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF rose 2%.

Nvidia was founded in 1993 to develop chips for 3D gaming. In recent years, the company’s chip designs have been adopted for AI applications due to their suitability for parallel processing.

During a visit to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab on May 29, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a new U.S. supercomputer that will be powered by the company’s forthcoming Vera Rubin chips.

PHOTO: NVIDIA

This article was created with AI assistance.