Chipmaker Nvidia's market cap passes $3 trillion, overtakes Apple as 2nd most valuable company in US

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Nvidia's market cap passed the $3 trillion mark Wednesday and has overtaken Apple as the second most valuable company in the US by the closing bell on Wall Street.

The California-based chipmaker’s stock price hit an all-time high of $1,223.59 at 3.15 p.m. EDT, giving it a market capitalization of $3.01 trillion. With that feat, Nvidia has become the third company in the US to hit that milestone after Apple and Microsoft, respectively.

Apple's stock price was trading around $195.95 at that time, with a market cap of $3.004 trillion.

At Wednesday's final bell at 4 p.m. EDT, Nvidia's stock price closed at a new record-high of $1,224.40 for a 5.16% daily gain, and the firm's market value stood at $3.01 trillion.

At the end of the session, Apple's stock was $195.87 for a daily gain of 0.78%.

Apple became the first company in the US that saw its market value hit the $2 trillion mark, but it has been trailing Microsoft, which had a $3.15 trillion market value at the close Wednesday.

Nvidia's shares soared 12% on May 23 after reporting record revenue of $26 billion in the first quarter that ended April 28 -- up 262% from almost $7.2 billion in the same period last year.

The chipmaker also saw record quarterly data center revenue of $22.6 billion, which soared 427% from the same period in 2023; while net income jumped a massive 628% to almost $14.9 billion in the first quarter from approximately $2 billion in the same period last year.

Nvidia's record-breaking feats come as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) is booming globally and the company is increasing collaborations with major tech companies.

The firm announced May 21 new AI performance optimizations and integrations for Microsoft's Windows operating system that help deliver maximum performance.

Microsoft, meanwhile, backs American AI company OpenAI, which unveiled last month its latest model, named GPT-4o, which is much faster compared to previous models.

Nvidia's shares have gained 147% since the beginning of 2024, after closing 2023 at $495.22.