Nvidia becomes first public company worth over $4trn

(Sharecast News) - Nvidia's share price reached a new high on Wednesday in New York, with the chip titan becoming the first publicly traded company in history to be worth more than $4 trillion.

The Nasdaq-listed stock rose to an intraday high of $164.42 early on, sending its market capitalisation above the $4trn mark before falling to $163.07 by 1112 ET, equating to a value of $3.98trn.

That surpassed an earlier record set by Apple, which hit a record market cap of $3.90trn at the end of last year.

Nvidia's share price has now risen by more than 21% since the start of the year, following a 73% surge since hitting a low of $94.31 in April following the wider stock-market sell-off driven by Donald Trump's tariff war. Since the start of 2023, the stock has rocketed nearly 1,000%.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that Nvidia's "early lead and deep integration" into the AI value chain, across both startups and large enterprises, has enabled its rapid evolution.

"Once known for powering video games, NVIDIA has transformed into a foundational player in AI infrastructure," Britzman said.

"Its high-performance chips now drive everything from natural language processing to robotics, making them essential to training and deploying advanced AI models. Beyond hardware, its full-stack ecosystem - including software platforms and developer tools - helps companies scale AI quickly and efficiently. This end-to-end approach has positioned NVIDIA as a cornerstone in a market where speed, scalability, and efficiency are critical."

Looking ahead, while the company's rapid growth is expected to slow as competition in the market ramps up, Britzman said there was still "an attractive opportunity ahead" for potential investors, since the stock is trading at just 32 times forward earnings despite forecasts of growing sales by more than 50% this year.