NVIDIA became the first semiconductor maker to rank as the world’s most valuable public company by market capitalization.
NVIDIA reached the top global position in June 2024, overtaking Microsoft and Apple during a period of intense investor demand for artificial-intelligence infrastructure. Its graphics processors are widely used to train and run advanced AI models.
The company’s rise illustrates how market-cap rankings can reflect expectations about future growth, not only current sales. NVIDIA’s data-center business expanded rapidly as cloud providers and technology companies invested in accelerated computing.
NVIDIA is a semiconductor designer rather than a traditional large-scale chip manufacturer. It relies on manufacturing partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, while developing chip architectures, systems, and software such as CUDA.