Nvidia becomes first US company to reach $4 trillion market cap

Nvidia bypassed Apple and Microsoft, the only other US firms with a market value of more than $3 trillion.

Nvidia has notched a market capitalisation of $4 trillion, making it the first public company in the world to reach the milestone and solidifying its position as one of Wall Street’s most-favoured stocks.

On Wednesday, shares of the leading chip designer rose as much as 2.5 percent to an all-time high of $164, benefiting from the continuing surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies.

The stock’s recent rally comes despite a sluggish start to the year, when the emergence of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model developed by DeepSeek shook confidence in stocks linked to the sector.

Nvidia achieved a $1 trillion market value for the first time in June 2023 and tripled it in about a year, faster than Apple and Microsoft, the only other United States firms with a market value of more than $3 trillion.

Microsoft is the second-biggest US company, with a market capitalisation of $3.75 trillion. Its shares were last up 1.3 percent at $503.

Nvidia has rebounded about 74 percent from its April lows, when global markets were jolted by US President Donald Trump’s tariff volley.

Optimism around trade partners reaching deals with the US have lifted stocks of late, with the S&P 500 hitting an all-time high.

Nvidia holds a 7.3 percent weight on the S&P 500, the biggest on the index. Other tech behemoths, Apple and Microsoft, account for about 7 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

The company is worth more than the combined value of the Canadian and Mexican stock markets, according to LSEG data, and exceeds the total value of all publicly listed companies in the UK.

Its stock trades at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 32, below its three-year average of 37, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Nvidia’s soaring market value highlights Wall Street’s confidence in the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, with the company’s chips forming the backbone of this technological advance.

It reported a total revenue of $44.1bn in the first quarter, marking a 69 percent jump from a year ago, along with a profit of $0.81 a share.

For the second quarter, Nvidia expects revenue of $45bn, plus or minus 2 percent. It will report second-quarter results on August 27.

Including the session’s gains, Nvidia is up more than 22 percent this year, compared with a nearly 15 percent rise in the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index.