Shares of Nvidia closed at their highest ever on Monday, October 14, putting the heavyweight AI chipmaker on the brink of dethroning iPhone maker Apple as the world’s most valuable company.
The Santa Clara, California company’s stock climbed 2.4 per cent to end the day at $138.07, on the back of investors betting on strong demand for its current and next-generation AI processors.
The latest gains lifted Nvidia’s market value to $3.39 trillion, just below Apple’s $3.52 trillion value and above Microsoft’s $3.12 trillion, Reuters reported.
In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company.
It was overtaken by Microsoft, and the tech trio’s market capitalisations have been neck-and-neck for several months.
The chipmaker has been Wall Street’s biggest winner from a race between Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and other major tech companies to dominate emerging AI technology.
“We believe the major companies in AI … face an investment environment characterised by a Prisoner’s Dilemma — each is individually incentivized to continue spending, as the costs of not doing so are (potentially) devastating,” TD Cowen analysts wrote in a report on Sunday.
TD Cowen reiterated its $165 price target for Nvidia, which it called its “Top Pick”, and it said demand for the company’s current generation of AI chips remained strong.
The chipmaker in August confirmed reports that a ramp-up in production of its upcoming Blackwell chips was delayed until the fourth quarter, but downplayed the impact, saying customers were snapping up existing chips.
As investors gear up for the quarterly reporting season, Apple rose almost 2 per cent and Microsoft added 0.7 per cent, helping propel the S&P 500 up 0.8 per cent to its own record-high close.
Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft account for about a fifth of the S&P 500’s weight, giving them a hefty influence in the index’s day-to-day gains and losses.
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