NVIDIA became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company after its 2024 market-cap surge tied to demand for artificial-intelligence chips.
NVIDIA’s rise reflected rapid growth in demand for data-center GPUs and networking systems used by companies building large AI models. Its results and forecasts repeatedly exceeded earlier expectations, causing investors to revalue the company at extraordinary speed.
Market-cap rankings can change quickly because they depend on share prices. NVIDIA temporarily moved ahead of Microsoft and Apple at different points in 2024, and the order could change again as markets respond to earnings, interest rates, competition, and investor expectations.
NVIDIA does not manufacture every chip in its own factories. It designs processors and platforms, while specialized semiconductor foundries manufacture many of the physical chips. That business model differs from an integrated manufacturer such as Intel.