Nvidia named world’s most valuable company, surpassing Apple, Microsoft

Nvidia has reportedly been named world’s most valuable company after seeing increases in its shares, underscoring the prominent role investors expect artificial intelligence to play in the global economy over coming years. It has also now overtaken tech giants such Apple and Microsoft.

Shares of the software company reportedly rose 3.5% on Tuesday, giving it a market value of about $3.34 trillion, according to Reuters.

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Earlier last month, Nvidia announced a stock split, lifting its shares. This was attributed to technology companies such as Google and Microsoft competing for a limited supply of its high-end chips to get ahead in AI computing, said Reuters. 

Nvidia’s shares have reportedly risen more than 170% this year and have risen about 1100% since their October 2022 low. High investor confidence in AI has been reflected in Nvidia’s growing market value, which took only 96 days to go from US$2 trillion to US$3 trillion.

This is in contrast to companies such as Microsoft and Apple, which spent 945 and 1044 days respectively to reach that milestone.

Companies previously helming the title of most valuable have met diverging fortunes. Despite struggling during the early 2000s, Microsoft was able to gain in value in the latter half of the past decade, mirroring its top position in the 1990s. Meanwhile, while Cisco’s shares peaked during the dotcom boom, it entered sharp devaluation after. 

Meanwhile, other tech giants are also competing to get ahead in the AI race. Tech giant Apple took a slice of the pie from early industry players such as Microsoft and Google. Earlier at the brand's World Wide Developers Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the brand's personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad and Mac called 'Apple Intelligence'.

Apple Intelligence harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks.

“We’re thrilled to introduce a new chapter in Apple innovation. Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products and what our products can do for our users,” said Cook at the time.

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