Nvidia became the world's most valuable public company in June 2024 after its market value passed Microsoft.
Nvidia briefly took the top position on June 18, 2024, when its market capitalization exceeded Microsoft's. The change followed a dramatic rise in demand for Nvidia's graphics-processing units, or GPUs, which are widely used to train and run artificial-intelligence systems. Market leadership can change quickly because capitalization moves with share prices.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It first became famous for graphics chips used in personal computers and video games. Its CUDA software platform and data-center hardware later made it a major supplier for accelerated computing and AI.
The company has experienced several stock splits, including a 10-for-1 split in 2024. A split reduces the price of each individual share while proportionally increasing the number of shares, so it does not by itself alter the company's total market capitalization.