Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable public company on June 18, 2024, surpassing Microsoft and Apple.
Nvidia’s market value rose rapidly because investors expected enormous demand for its graphics processing units, or GPUs. These chips became central to training and running generative artificial-intelligence systems, including large language models.
The company was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. It first became famous for graphics chips used in personal computers and video games, but its CUDA software platform helped make Nvidia hardware important in scientific computing and AI.
Nvidia’s lead was temporary because market capitalization changes whenever share prices move. Microsoft and Apple have also repeatedly occupied the top position. A common mix-up is confusing market capitalization with annual revenue: market cap is the total value investors assign to a company’s outstanding shares.