Nvidia became the first publicly traded semiconductor maker valued at US$1 trillion in May 2023.
Nvidia’s shares crossed the threshold after the company issued a strong forecast tied to demand for artificial-intelligence computing. Its graphics processing units, or GPUs, had become central to training and running large machine-learning systems, creating intense investor interest in the company’s future growth.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It first became widely known for graphics processors used in personal computers and video games, but its CUDA software platform helped make its hardware useful for scientific computing and AI workloads.
The US$1 trillion figure refers to market capitalization, not sales or profit. Nvidia later became one of the world’s most valuable companies, while Intel and AMD remained major semiconductor competitors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company manufactures chips for many designers but is a separate type of semiconductor business.