Nvidia becomes world’s most valuable company, beating Microsoft, as AI revolution reshapes global tech landscape

Nvidia Corporation reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable publicly traded company on Tuesday, surpassing Microsoft after a sharp rally driven by unrelenting demand for its AI chips. The stock rose 2.80% to close at $141.22, pushing its market capitalisation to $3.445 trillion, marginally ahead of Microsoft’s $3.441 trillion.

Nvidia has reclaimed the top spot for the first time since January 24, when the company briefly surpassed Microsoft, amid a global surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Shares of the chipmaker have surged nearly 24% over the past month, adding $1 trillion to its market value. Since June last year, the chipmaker has been in close competition with Apple and Microsoft for the title of the world’s most valuable company.

Nvidia’s surge in market value comes on the back of strong quarterly results, despite ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions. The company reported a 69% year-on-year jump in revenue to $44.06 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.96, both surpassing analyst expectations and boosting investor confidence. Driven by heightened AI chip demand, the company’s data-centre business rose 73% to $39.1 billion from last year.

The resurgence of the semiconductor giant has eased concerns about its exposure to China, which accounted for 13% of its revenue last quarter. Although the U.S. restrictions continue to pose a risk, recent purchase agreements in the Middle Eastern markets and ongoing capital spending from its biggest clients are helping offset potential losses.

Major technology companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon, collectively represent over 40% of Nvidia’s revenue.

“AI is now infrastructure, and this infrastructure, just like the internet, just like electricity, needs factories. These factories are essentially what we build today,” said Jensen Huang at Computex this year in May.

Analysts estimate that these firms are expected to raise their combined capital expenditures to $330 billion by 2026, up 6% from this year, according to media reports.

Founded in 1993 as a graphics chipmaker for gaming, Nvidia has evolved into the backbone of the AI infrastructure, powering systems from OpenAI's ChatGPT to Microsoft and xAI.