Nvidia Surpasses Apple in Market Cap, Cementing Its Status as the AI Hardware King

Nvidia Corp. is rewriting the rules of market dominance. On Thursday, the chip giant’s market capitalization reached a staggering $3.92 trillion, briefly eclipsing Apple’s record as investors double down on artificial intelligence.

Nvidia shares were trading at $160.60, up 2.2% in early trade. That rally placed it at the top of Wall Street’s leaderboard, edging past Apple’s $3.915 trillion valuation from late 2024. Microsoft, by comparison, followed at $3.7 trillion.

While Nvidia’s roots are in gaming hardware, its future is entirely about AI infrastructure. Its cutting-edge graphics processors now serve as the essential engine behind machine learning, autonomous driving, robotics, and advanced natural language models.

The company’s market value—which has multiplied nearly 8x since 2021—has grown faster than any other S&P 500 tech firm. Its influence is so immense that it now commands 7.4% of the entire S&P 500 index.

Wall Street strategist Joe Saluzzi calls the trend “AI fever.” He noted, “When one company hits four trillion, we’re witnessing not just innovation, but a reallocation of global investment priorities.”

Investor concerns earlier this year—centered around tariff threats and Chinese AI competition—have since faded. Nvidia’s rebound of over 68% since April 4 suggests strong investor faith in future earnings, especially as the White House signals progress on trade stability.

Beyond numbers, Nvidia represents the shift from traditional hardware to AI-as-utility. Its chips are no longer luxury items for research labs—they’re infrastructure for the next wave of civilization’s computing power.

From its Santa Clara headquarters to data centers in every corner of the globe, Nvidia is powering the AI economy—and Wall Street knows it.