June 4 - Nvidia (NVDA, Financial) on Tuesday overtook Microsoft (MSFT, Financial) to once again become the world's most valuable publicly traded company, driven by sustained demand for its artificial intelligence chips.
Shares in the chipmaker climbed about 3% to $141.40, lifting its market capitalization to roughly $3.45 trillion. Microsoft ended the day with a $3.44 trillion valuation.
Nvidia's recent gains follow strong fiscal first-quarter results last week, where it posted adjusted earnings of $0.96 per share on revenue of $44.06 billion, up 69% from a year earlier. Its AI accelerators are being bought in bulk by major tech players including Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOGL, Financial), Amazon (AMZN, Financial), Oracle (ORCL, Financial), and xAI for advanced AI systems.
The company's chips, originally designed for gaming, have proven highly effective for the parallel processing tasks required in AI development. Its technology powers applications like ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI.
Other semiconductor stocks also moved higher. Broadcom (AVGO, Financial) gained 3%, while Micron Technology (MU, Financial) rose 4%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH, Financial), which tracks a group of chipmakers, added 2%.
Nvidia last held the most valuable title in January and has rotated at the top with Apple (AAPL, Financial) and Microsoft since mid-2023.
