Nvidia stock surge drives market value near $1 trillion

From its beginnings as a provider of high-performance graphics processing power for video games, Nvidia Corp. has become one of the most valuable companies in the world based on its central role in ushering in an artificial-intelligence era across industries.
 
The company, which works with several global automakers such as BYD, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, saw its stock surge 24 percent on Thursday, adding $184 billion to its value after a positive revenue outlook based on artificial-intelligence advances.
 
That’s one of the largest one-day gains in value for a company in history, and places Nvidia’s market capitalization at nearly $939 billion.

That surge continued Friday with shares rising another 2.5 percent to close at $389.46 — pushing the market capitalization past $963 billion.
 
The increase extends Nvidia far ahead of computing competitors like Qualcomm, worth approximately $122 billion, and Intel, valued at about $119 billion.  
 
Although Nvidia reaches multiple industries and direct comparisons are difficult in the automotive realm, Tesla Inc. is valued at $613 billion.

Nvidia’s first made inroads with its high-performance chips in the auto industry, and it now provides a range of software, data center and now artificial-intelligence products across sectors.
 
Its Drive Orin system-on-chip powers many automakers’ driver-assistance and autonomous-driving ambitions, and is increasingly utilized for both those systems and in-cabin features as automakers consolidate their computing architectures.
 
Likewise, Nvidia’s Omniverse platform — akin to a three-dimensional version of Google Docs that allow teams to work on products simultaneously — has been adopted by automakers to help them design and develop both vehicles and factories. In March, BMW said it would use Omniverse for building and planning across its production network, including at its EV plant in Debrecen, Hungary, scheduled to begin operations in 2025.

Approaching Apple, Google and Microsoft

With the stock surge, Nvidia trails only trillion-dollar-value companies Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.
 
The rosy earnings also sparked a rally in the chip sector and for AI-focused firms, lifting stock markets from Japan to Europe. In the U.S., Big Tech companies other than Amazon closed between 0.6 percent and 3.8 percent higher, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc. settled 11 percent higher.

Analysts rushed to raise their price targets on Nvidia stock, with 27 lifting their view on the idea that all roads in AI lead to the company as it dominates the market for chips used to power ChatGPT and many similar services.

Pete Bigelow of Automotive News and Reuters contributed to this report.