Nvidia’s 2024 market capitalization briefly made it the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
On June 18, 2024, Nvidia’s market value briefly exceeded those of Microsoft and Apple during trading. The company’s shares had risen sharply as investors anticipated continuing demand for its graphics processors and related systems used in artificial-intelligence computing.
Nvidia’s position was temporary because market capitalization changes whenever share prices move. Microsoft regained the top position soon afterward, illustrating how closely contested the rankings of the largest public companies can be.
Nvidia’s rise was tied to its CUDA software ecosystem, data-center accelerators, and partnerships across the AI industry. The company’s history began with graphics chips for personal computers and video games, but its data-center business became a much larger driver of valuation.