Nvidia Makes History as World’s First $5 Trillion Company

The company’s shares closed Wednesday at $207.04, with about 24.3 billion shares outstanding, pushing its total market value to roughly $5.03 trillion. Nvidia’s leap past that threshold marks the fastest trillion-dollar climb in corporate history and places it in rarefied air, worth more than the GDP of nations like Japan, India, and the United Kingdom.

The New Face of the Tech Era

Nvidia’s ascent is often compared to Apple’s in the late 2000s, when the iPhone sparked a mobile revolution. But this time, it’s artificial intelligence driving the shift. The company’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, have become the foundation of the AI industry, powering everything from ChatGPT and image generators to data centers and autonomous vehicles.

Once known mainly for gaming hardware, Nvidia’s chips now underpin the computing infrastructure for AI giants and startups alike. Demand has soared since early 2023, as companies race to build and deploy generative AI systems. That hunger for computing power has turned Nvidia into one of the most important firms in the world, both technologically and economically.

How Big Is $5 Trillion?

To put the milestone in perspective:

Only the U.S. and China have economies larger than Nvidia’s market value
$5 trillion could buy about 12 million homes at today’s median U.S. price of $415,200, enough to almost blanket the state of Connecticut
In $100 bills, it would weigh roughly 110 million pounds, or about the same as 111 fully fueled Boeing 747-8 jets

With an estimated U.S. population of 340 million, Nvidia’s worth equals about $15,000 per person

It’s the kind of valuation once reserved for entire industries, not individual companies.

Partnerships, Power Plays, & Global Politics

Nvidia’s growth has been propelled by a string of headline-grabbing moves. Earlier this week, CEO Jensen Huang revealed $500 billion in chip orders and announced new partnerships that stretch from Silicon Valley to Seoul. The company is teaming up with Uber on self-driving technology and investing $1 billion in Nokia to develop next-generation 6G networks.

Nvidia also struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy to build seven new AI supercomputers, and last month announced a $100 billion investment in OpenAI to dramatically expand the computing power behind ChatGPT.

These developments coincide with growing geopolitical tension over advanced chip technology. Huang is currently in South Korea, where world leaders are gathering for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. On the sidelines, former U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet to discuss trade restrictions and the sale of high-end chips, a subject in which Nvidia sits squarely at the center.

In August, Reuters reported the Trump administration struck a controversial deal with Nvidia and AMD to lift export controls on advanced chips to China in exchange for a 15 percent cut of sales revenue. Around the same time, the U.S. government disclosed a 10 percent stake in Intel, and Nvidia announced a $5 billion investment in the struggling chipmaker.

A Rally That’s Reshaping Markets

Nvidia’s record valuation helped push the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq to new highs this week, extending a months-long rally in AI-focused stocks. Other tech players like Apple and Microsoft also hit fresh records, each valued at over $4 trillion.

But the surge has revived concerns about a potential AI bubble. Both the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund have warned that inflated stock prices driven by AI euphoria could eventually correct sharply. Still, many investors, including Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, remain optimistic that this is only the beginning of a long-term transformation.

“If our expectations for AI are correct,” Wood told CNBC, “we’re at the very beginning of a technology revolution.”

Huang has echoed that sentiment, brushing off talk of a bubble. He argues that AI is already crossing from “interesting” to “indispensable,” and that Nvidia’s technology will underpin the next wave of profitable innovation.

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