Nvidia became the first semiconductor maker to exceed a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Nvidia crossed the $1 trillion mark in May 2023. Its valuation was propelled by demand for graphics-processing units used in artificial intelligence, data centers, gaming, and scientific computing. Nvidia’s chips and software became central to the rapid expansion of generative-AI systems, increasing investor expectations for future revenue and profits.
Nvidia is often described as a chip designer rather than a traditional semiconductor manufacturer. It designs processors and platforms while relying on specialist foundries, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, to fabricate many chips. That distinction explains why Nvidia and TSMC can both be important to the semiconductor industry while performing different roles.
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem founded Nvidia in 1993. The company first became famous for graphics hardware and later expanded into parallel computing and accelerated data-center workloads.