Nvidia became the first chipmaker to reach a US$1 trillion market capitalization in 2023.
Nvidia crossed the milestone in May 2023 as investors rapidly increased their valuation of companies supplying hardware for artificial-intelligence computing. Its graphics processing units, or GPUs, became especially important for training and running large machine-learning models.
Nvidia began in 1993 and initially became widely known for graphics processors used in personal computers and video games. The company later expanded into data-center accelerators, networking products, and software platforms such as CUDA. That broader role helped distinguish it from traditional PC-chip manufacturers.
Market capitalization measures the market value of outstanding shares, so Nvidia’s trillion-dollar status was based on its stock price rather than on revenue or cash reserves. The milestone is sometimes confused with the much older US$1 trillion achievements of large technology companies. Nvidia’s achievement was notable because it came from the semiconductor sector and was closely linked to the AI investment boom.