KUALA LUMPUR – Chipmaker and artificial intelligence (AI) leader Nvidia is now the world’s most valuable publicly traded company after its shares surged yesterday, putting it ahead of Microsoft and Apple.
Shares of the California-based company jumped 3.5% to US$135.58 (RM638.44), raising its market capitalisation to US$3.335 trillion.
Nvidia, led by Taiwan-born Jensen Huang, has been on an 18-month streak thanks to demand for its graphic processing unit chips, as AI fever captures markets.
In May, Nvidia reported a net profit of US$14.9 billion, while its revenue of US$26 billion was nearly four times that in the same fiscal quarter last year.
Microsoft’s stock market value was US$3.317 trillion as its shares dipped 0.45%.
Apple’s stock was down by over 1%, and valued at US$3.286 trillion.
Nvidia has become the most traded company on Wall Street, with daily turnover recently averaging US$50 billion, compared to around US$10 billion each for Apple, Microsoft and Tesla, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group, cited by Reuters.
The company now accounts for about 16% of all trading in S&P 500 companies. – June 19, 2024