Chip giant Nvidia overtakes Apple to become world’s highest-valued publicly traded company

Nvidia, a dominant player in AI semiconductors, had a 3% rise in its market cap Wednesday morning and is now valued higher than Apple.

The California-based company’s graphic processing units are used for computer gaming as well as for machines running artificial intelligence software.

Nvidia, with a stock price of $146, had a market valuation of $3.5 trillion compared with Apple’s $3.4 trillion by Wednesday’s afternoon session on Wall Street.

The growing market for GPUs helped Nvidia overtake Apple for a brief period in June. 

Nvidia’s stock has increased by more than 2,700% the past five years, reflecting the company’s rocketing revenue, which has more than doubled for five straight quarters.

Some experts see Nvidia’s rise as a sign that AI business will continue to expand.

“Nvidia overtaking Apple in market cap not only conveys that it is the biggest beneficiary of the AI infrastructure cycle, but it suggests people expect the AI boom will continue,” Fall Ainina, director of research at James Investment Research, told Bloomberg.

On Friday, Nvidia will be added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index, replacing Intel and joining Apple.

Intel, which also makes GPU semiconductor chips, has been on the index for 25 years. Its shares, however, have dropped 54% this year, leading to their drop off the Dow.