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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] SAN FRANCISCO, July 9 – U.S. chipmaker NVIDIA has become the first company in global history to reach an intraday market capitalization of $4 trillion, driven by surging demand for AI-related computing power.
On Tuesday, NVIDIA shares climbed as much as 2.5% to $164.42 during intraday trading, pushing its market capitalization above the $4 trillion mark. This historic milestone comes just three years and six months after Apple became the first company to hit a $3 trillion market cap in January 2022.
NVIDIA reached a $2 trillion valuation in February 2023, hit the $3 trillion milestone in June of the same year, and has now entered the $4 trillion era—marking a staggering pace of value growth.
To put this in perspective, NVIDIA’s market cap now exceeds that of South Korea’s largest company, Samsung Electronics ($290 billion), by more than 13 times. It is also nearly equal to the entire GDP of Japan ($4.186 trillion), the world's fifth-largest economy according to IMF estimates.
NVIDIA shares have surged more than 20% year-to-date and have increased tenfold since the beginning of 2023.
According to Bloomberg, NVIDIA now makes up 7.5% of the S&P 500 index—an all-time high for a single company.
The rapid rise in stock value is attributed to continued AI infrastructure spending by major tech giants such as Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Google. Collectively, these companies are expected to invest $350 billion in capital expenditures in the upcoming fiscal year, up from $310 billion this year. These firms together account for over 40% of NVIDIA’s revenue.
Earlier this year, concerns over reduced AI investment following the rise of China’s AI startup DeepSeek led to a temporary stock decline, which worsened in April amid uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump’s tariff threats. NVIDIA shares even fell below $100.
However, optimism around U.S.-China trade negotiations and solid earnings reflecting strong AI-related demand triggered a rebound in May, which has continued into July.
AlphaBIZ Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
