Nvidia briefly became the world's most valuable publicly traded company in June 2024 after surpassing Microsoft and Apple.
The shift followed a sharp rise in demand for Nvidia's graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are widely used to train and run artificial-intelligence systems. Investors viewed Nvidia as a central supplier of the computing infrastructure behind the AI boom.
Nvidia's market value is based on its share price and shares outstanding, so the ranking was not a permanent title. Microsoft and Apple soon reclaimed the top position at different points as their own share prices moved.
The episode also illustrates why market-cap lists are snapshots rather than fixed league tables. Nvidia was founded in 1993 and originally became known for graphics hardware used in personal computers and video games.