Nvidia Becomes World’s First $5 Trillion Company

US-based tech powerhouse Nvidia has officially become the world’s first company to hit a $5 trillion market capitalization, underscoring investor confidence in the long-term potential of artificial intelligence to drive global innovation and economic growth.

On Wednesday, Nvidia’s shares surged by 4.91% to $210.90 at the opening of trading on Wall Street, lifting the chipmaker’s valuation past the historic threshold. The company’s market value now exceeds the GDP of France or Germany and is larger than the combined worth of Tesla, Meta, and Netflix.

Microsoft and Apple — the only other global giants in Nvidia’s valuation range — each hover just above the $4 trillion mark.

The latest surge follows a series of strong sales reports, major partnership announcements, and optimism over potential access to the Chinese market. Notably, Nvidia recently revealed a strategic collaboration with Nokia to expand its AI and 5G capabilities across Europe.

Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management said Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market remains unmatched. “While it’s almost unfathomable to see a company reach this milestone, Nvidia operates with such efficiency that it announces major partnerships nearly every week,” he said.

Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, is expected in South Korea this week to attend events on the sidelines of the APEC Summit, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss global AI policies.

Currently, Nvidia’s advanced chips are not available in China due to a mix of national security concerns, government bans, and ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. While the Trump administration is pushing for a more balanced trade policy on AI technologies, several lawmakers continue to call for tougher restrictions.

In recent weeks, Nvidia has announced ambitious investments, including plans to inject $100 billion into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and $5 billion into rival Intel to help expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.

The company’s GPUs — powerful processors used for graphics and machine learning — are the backbone of most generative AI models, including those driving ChatGPT and other large language systems. Though Nvidia initially built GPUs for gaming in the 1990s, it quickly pivoted to cloud computing and AI, giving it a long-standing edge in the field.

Analysts warn, however, that the soaring valuations across the AI industry may echo the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, which ended in a market crash in 2000. Still, experts like Sam Stovall of CFRA Research say Nvidia’s fundamentals remain strong. “Nvidia’s story continues to get better, not worse,” he said, noting that the company’s growth trajectory still outpaces most of its competitors.