Nvidia has officially become the first company in history to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization, marking a major milestone in the era of artificial intelligence. The company’s stock surged more than 2% on Wednesday, fueled by continued investor confidence in its dominant position in the AI hardware sector.
Founded in 1993, the California-based chipmaker has seen explosive growth over the past several years, benefiting immensely from the global race to develop and deploy generative AI technologies. Since the emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT in late 2022, Nvidia has positioned itself as the clear industry leader in providing the high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) that power modern large language models and AI infrastructure.
This meteoric rise has catapulted Nvidia past tech titans like Microsoft and Apple, both of which previously reached the $3 trillion mark. Notably, Microsoft—one of Nvidia’s largest customers—relies heavily on the company’s chips to drive its own AI ambitions.
Nvidia’s stock has gained over 15% in the past month alone and is up 22% year-to-date. Over the last five years, the company’s valuation has skyrocketed more than fifteenfold, a staggering growth trajectory that reflects both market enthusiasm and the sheer scale of demand for AI computing power.
Despite challenges from international politics and trade restrictions, Nvidia has continued to surge ahead. The company recently acknowledged that new export restrictions targeting its H20 chips—a product tailored specifically for the Chinese market—would result in an estimated $8 billion in lost sales. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang called the China market closure a “tremendous loss,” emphasizing the geopolitical headwinds the company is navigating.
Even so, investors remain undeterred. Nvidia’s ability to outperform in the face of such barriers highlights the strength of its product portfolio and the unmatched demand for its chips in data centers, cloud computing platforms, and AI labs across the globe.
From startups to the world’s largest tech firms, nearly every player in the generative AI space depends on Nvidia’s hardware. This reliance has not only cemented the company’s dominant market position but also made it the most valuable business in the world as of July 2025.
