Nvidia became the first publicly traded company ever to reach a market value of US$4 trillion on Wednesday morning, as its stock continues its meteoric rise.Shares of the chipmaker jumped 2.4% to US$164, as investors bought up stock in the tech giant, which is responsible for building much of the hardware driving the current artificial intelligence boom.The surge in demand has boosted the Silicon Valley giant’s share price more than fifteen-fold over the last five years.Shares are up more than 15% over the past month and 22% since the start of the year.This now makes Nvidia the world’s most valuable company, surpassing both Apple and Microsoft, which previously hit the US$3 trillion mark..Apple was the first company to reach that milestone, doing so in 2022, and it achieved a record market cap of US$3.91 trillion in December 2024.Microsoft is currently the second-most valuable U.S. company, with a market value of US$3.75 trillion.Nvidia crossed the US$1 trillion threshold back in June 2023, and its surge has continued unabated since then, with its market value steadily tripling over the past year.Its value now represents 7.3% of the entire S&P 500, Wall Street’s benchmark stock index. Apple and Microsoft account for 7% and 6%, respectively.The tech giant is now worth more than the combined value of the Canadian and Mexican stock markets, according to LSEG data, and it exceeds the total value of all publicly listed companies in the U.K.Nvidia and other companies benefiting from the AI boom have been a major factor behind the S&P 500’s climb to new record highs in recent months.
