Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia has made history, becoming the first publicly traded company in the world to be valued at $5 trillion. The company’s shares reached $207.86 on Wednesday, pushing its market cap to $5.05 trillion amid a broad, AI-driven stock market rally.
This milestone is all the more remarkable for its speed. Nvidia only just broke the $4 trillion barrier three months ago. This rapid acceleration is fueled by an insatiable, “ravenous” demand for its advanced chips, which are the critical components for building and running artificial intelligence systems.
The scale of this valuation is difficult to comprehend. According to IMF data, Nvidia’s $5 trillion market cap is now greater than the individual GDP of major nations like India, Japan, or the United Kingdom. It has completely outpaced its competitors in the chip industry.
The company’s momentum is backed by a torrent of positive news. CEO Jensen Huang recently revealed $500 billion in chip orders. This was followed by announcements of a robotaxi partnership with Uber, a $1 billion investment in Nokia for 6G, and a $100 billion investment in OpenAI to build out its AI computing infrastructure.
This AI boom is being called the biggest tectonic shift in technology since the iPhone 18 years ago. However, this rapid, high-stakes growth has also triggered alarms. The Bank of England and the IMF have both warned of a potential AI bubble, with critics pointing to circular deals and the high failure rate of corporate AI projects as major risks.