Nvidia has become the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion, driven largely by high demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs). The company’s chips, originally developed for video gaming, have been widely adopted for artificial intelligence applications, such as powering AI chatbots and image generators. This shift in technology use has led to increased demand from tech companies seeking more GPUs to develop and run advanced AI systems.
As of the close of trading on Wednesday, Nvidia’s total market capitalization stood at $5.03 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the S&P 500 index. Microsoft and Apple followed with market capitalizations of $4.025 trillion and $4 trillion respectively. Currently, nine companies in the S&P 500 have valuations above $1 trillion.
According to Morningstar Direct data, about 23% of stock-focused mutual funds and exchange traded funds tracked have exposure to Nvidia. This represents 1,435 out of 6,198 funds and totals approximately $1.3 trillion in market value across all these funds.
The growth in Nvidia’s valuation has been rapid: it took only 79 trading days for its market cap to increase from $4 trillion to $5 trillion. Earlier jumps included a move from $3 trillion on May 13 to $4 trillion on July 9 over just 41 trading days.
Nvidia also contributed significantly to gains in the S&P 500 this year—accounting for an estimated 18.6% of the index’s rise as of September 30, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices—with its shares increasing by 39% during the first nine months of the year.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, now has a net worth estimated at $179.6 billion according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List. He is currently ranked eighth on that list; Elon Musk leads with a net worth of $500.2 billion.
To put Nvidia’s size into perspective, Japan—the world’s fourth largest economy—has a gross domestic product valued at approximately $4.28 trillion according to figures from the International Monetary Fund.
