Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company in June 2024 after its market value exceeded $3 trillion.
On June 18, 2024, Nvidia’s shares rose enough for its market capitalization to surpass those of Microsoft and Apple. The shift illustrated how quickly stock-market rankings can change, especially when investors strongly revalue a company’s future growth.
Nvidia designs graphics processing units, or GPUs, and related computing platforms. GPUs became central to training and running artificial-intelligence systems, making Nvidia a key supplier during the rapid expansion of generative AI. Its CUDA software ecosystem also helped tie developers to its hardware.
Nvidia was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem. The company began with a focus on computer graphics and gaming, but data-center and AI demand later became major drivers of its valuation.