Nvidia Briefly Overtakes Apple as World's Most Valuable Company

Key Takeaways

• Nvidia shares rose Monday, propelling the chipmaker into the top spot on the list of the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization.
• Nvidia and Apple, along with software and cloud computing giant Microsoft, have been vying for the title of the world’s most valuable company since the summer. 
• Robust demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure has fueled Nvidia's meteoric rise.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares rose Monday, briefly propelling the AI chip leader above Apple (AAPL) to claim the top spot on the list of the world’s most valuable companies.

Shares climbed as much as 2.6% Monday morning, giving Nvidia a market capitalization of more than $3.4 trillion, slightly more than Apple’s $3.37 trillion market value. Apple shares dipped Monday after slumping last week amid a tech sell-off and disappointing quarterly profits.

Nvidia conceded the top spot late in the session when shares pared their gains to close just 0.5% higher.

Nvidia and Apple, along with software and cloud computing giant Microsoft (MSFT), have been vying for the title of the world’s most valuable company since the summer. 

Nvidia was named a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on Friday. Nvidia is replacing beleaguered rival chipmaker Intel (INTC). The move will take effect before the market opens on Nov. 8, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, which manages the index. (Paint company Sherwin-Williams (SHW) was also tapped to join the blue-chip index, taking the spot of chemical giant Dow (DOW).)

Nvidia was about a third of the size of Apple and Microsoft at the beginning of the year, when its market cap stood at $1.2 trillion. Since then, robust demand for AI has fueled the stock’s meteoric rise. Tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon (AMZN), Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), and Meta (META) have committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars this year and next on infrastructure, with much of that spending going toward the Nvidia semiconductors and servers required to train and run AI models. 

The stock hit a road bump in mid-July, when a litany of factors from recession fears to rotation out of mega caps into small-cap stocks, and concerns about unsustainable AI spending sank tech stocks from their all-time highs. Nvidia shares shed a quarter of their value between mid-July and mid-August, but rebounding optimism about artificial intelligence and the resilience of the U.S. economy has revived the stock’s historic bull run.

UPDATE: This article has been updated since it was first published to add context and reflect closing share prices.

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