Nvidia’s stock reached a record high of $138 on Monday, driven by renewed enthusiasm around artificial intelligence technology and the company’s next-generation Blackwell chip. The semiconductor giant’s market capitalization has surged by $517 billion since October 1, bringing its total valuation to $3.39 trillion—now within striking distance of Apple’s $3.52 trillion market cap.
The company’s remarkable nine-day rally of 18% has added more value than the entire market capitalizations of corporate giants like Oracle ($488 billion), Mastercard ($468 billion), and Home Depot ($413 billion). This growth is particularly striking considering Nvidia generated only $61 billion in revenue and less than $30 billion in net income last year.
Nvidia’s stock has skyrocketed 179% in 2024 alone, and an astounding 800% since the beginning of 2023. This meteoric rise has transformed founder and CEO Jensen Huang into the world’s 11th richest person, with his net worth exploding from approximately $14 billion to $121 billion in under two years—placing him ahead of tech pioneer Michael Dell and fashion magnate Amancio Ortega on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The current rally centers on Nvidia’s Blackwell chip, which Huang has characterized as “the engine to power this new industrial revolution.” The chip’s importance was underscored in March when its announcement featured endorsements from tech industry titans including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, Satya Nadella, Andy Jassy, and Sundar Pichai.
Nvidia executives announced plans in late August to accelerate Blackwell production in Q4, projecting billions of dollars in chip sales before year-end. The Blackwell processors are designed to power AI applications at significantly reduced cost and energy consumption compared to previous generations. Recent reports from Huang and Nvidia’s partners indicate overwhelming demand for these chips, with companies like Super Micro Computer reporting strong sales.
Meanwhile, competitor AMD experienced its steepest stock decline in over a month on Monday after unveiling new AI chips but providing limited information about customer demand and financial projections, highlighting Nvidia’s dominant market position.
Key Quotes
the engine to power this new industrial revolution
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, used this phrase to describe the Blackwell chip, emphasizing its transformative potential for AI applications. This characterization reflects the company’s positioning of its technology as fundamental infrastructure for the next era of computing.
Our Take
Nvidia’s ascent represents more than just a stock market success story—it’s a barometer for the entire AI economy. The company has effectively become the “arms dealer” of the AI gold rush, profiting regardless of which AI applications ultimately succeed. The unanimous support from competing tech giants for Blackwell reveals an uncomfortable truth: despite massive investments in AI development, these companies remain dependent on Nvidia’s hardware ecosystem. The 800% stock appreciation since 2023 may seem excessive, but it reflects genuine scarcity value in high-performance AI chips. However, investors should note the emerging competitive threats, as evidenced by AMD’s chip announcement, and the eventual commoditization risk that accompanies any hardware market. Nvidia’s challenge will be maintaining its technological lead as competitors intensify efforts to break its near-monopoly on AI training and inference chips.
Why This Matters
Nvidia’s extraordinary valuation surge underscores the transformative economic impact of the AI revolution currently reshaping global technology markets. The company’s near-$3.4 trillion market cap—achieved primarily through AI chip dominance—demonstrates how artificial intelligence infrastructure has become the most valuable commodity in modern computing.
This development signals a fundamental shift in corporate value creation, where AI enablement technology commands valuations exceeding traditional retail, financial services, and consumer goods giants. The fact that tech industry leaders from competing companies unanimously endorsed Nvidia’s Blackwell chip reveals the critical bottleneck AI chips represent in the race to deploy advanced AI systems.
For businesses across industries, Nvidia’s success highlights the strategic imperative of AI adoption and the premium markets place on companies facilitating this transition. The energy efficiency improvements promised by Blackwell chips also address growing concerns about AI’s environmental footprint, potentially accelerating enterprise AI deployment. As Nvidia approaches Apple’s market cap, it may signal a new hierarchy in tech valuation where AI infrastructure providers eclipse consumer technology companies in investor importance.
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