Nvidia Corporation became the world’s most valuable company for a short time on Friday (Oct. 25, 2024), achieving a record $3.53T market capitalization while it momentarily left Apple Inc behind. This historic milestone puts Nvidia in the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) market that has witnessed increased uptake of its niche AI processors. Apple’s value at the end of the trading day stood at $3.52 trillion – 0.4% higher – as Nvidia rose 0.8%, with a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion as of Monday’s close, LSEG data show.

Nvidia has been an emerging company since the early 90s as a designer of gaming chip and it has grown into an important provider of chips that are necessary to process data centers and elaborate machine learning models. This shift has driven a stock surge, as shares in Nvidia climb by 18% in October after talks that OPENAI, an advanced Artificial Intelligence firm, landed $6.6 billion in capital – a boost for investors which signified Nvidia’s powerful growth.

As Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet sought to build out their AI muscles, Nvidia’s chips have become the de facto choice. Microsoft’s market capitalisation now stands at 3.18 trillion reflecting the battle among these firms in the AI industry. Nvidia’s revenues are forecasted to increase at a rate of nearly 82% year on year, in comparison to a 5.55% year on year for Apple, and dampened iPhone demand in China.Nvidia’s meteoric rise has transformed industries as well as made it now possibly one of the S&P 500’s worth setters along with Apple & Microsoft. According to Russ Mould, the investment director at AJ Bell, it said the firm at ‘in the right place at the right time since companies are ramping up their AI capabilities’. Nvidia experiences a significant increase of options trading recently due to investors’ positive expectation towards continuous development of AI; however, some are skeptical about its sustaining.