Nvidia became the first semiconductor firm to join the $1 trillion market-capitalization club.
Nvidia crossed the threshold in May 2023 after issuing a strong forecast for demand linked to generative artificial intelligence. The valuation milestone made Nvidia the first chip-focused company to reach that level of public-market value.
Its central products are graphics processing units, or GPUs. Although GPUs were originally associated with rendering images and video games, their ability to perform many calculations simultaneously made them important for machine learning and large AI models.
The label “semiconductor firm” can be applied broadly, so comparisons sometimes vary depending on whether equipment makers, chip manufacturers, and designers are included. Nvidia is primarily a fabless designer: it creates processors and software platforms, while specialist foundries manufacture many of the chips. Its market value can therefore rise or fall independently of the physical factories that produce its products.