Nvidia became the first semiconductor company to rank as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company in June 2024.
Nvidia briefly moved ahead of Microsoft and Apple in market capitalization on June 18, 2024, as its shares continued a steep rise. The company’s stock rallied because investors expected exceptional demand for its graphics processing units, which are widely used to train and run artificial-intelligence systems.
Nvidia designs chips and related software but generally relies on specialist foundries, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, to manufacture them. That makes Nvidia different from an integrated manufacturer such as Intel. The top-ranking position was temporary and market-cap rankings changed repeatedly afterward, but Nvidia’s move marked a major shift in how investors valued companies supplying AI infrastructure.