NVIDIA was the first semiconductor maker to join the $1 trillion market-capitalization club.
NVIDIA crossed the $1 trillion valuation threshold in May 2023 as investors sharply increased their expectations for demand for graphics processors and artificial-intelligence computing. The company designs GPUs and related computing platforms used in gaming, data centers, scientific computing, and machine-learning systems.
NVIDIA’s rise illustrates how market capitalization reflects expectations about future earnings as well as current sales. It does not mean that NVIDIA manufactured every chip carrying its designs; much of its production is handled by contract manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. NVIDIA’s valuation continued to change rapidly as the AI infrastructure market expanded and investors reassessed the prospects of competing chip companies.