Nvidia, run by Jensen Huang, has become the world’s most valuable company, its market capitalisation hitting $3.9 trillion. The Santa Clara-based chip designer’s value now sits above the GDPs of United Kingdom and France, both of which are over $3 trillion, and is closing fast on India’s economy. Only the US and China remain ahead.
Shares rose 2.1% to $159.34 at close on Thursday, lifting Nvidia above Apple’s record high market cap of $3.915 trillion, which Apple reached on 26 December 2024. Microsoft holds the second spot with $3.7 trillion, while Apple has slipped to third at $3.19 trillion.
Nvidia's gigantic rise in comparison
Nvidia’s massive rise invites comparisons with entire countries. But there’s a catch. A company’s market value reflects how much investors believe it can earn in future, while a nation’s GDP measures the total value of all goods and services produced in a year.
India’s GDP, for example, covers the output of about 1.5 billion people working in farms, factories, IT services, shops and offices. Nvidia’s valuation, in contrast, hinges on just 30,000 employees building high-value, cutting-edge technology for artificial intelligence.
Yet the symbolism matters. A company built to make video game cards now outvalues the economic output of countries with massive populations and diverse industries.
Top 10 economies in 2025
Here’s how Nvidia’s $3.92 trillion value compares with the world’s largest national economies by GDP (nominal), according to IMF and Forbes India data from mid‑2025
India recently overtook the UK to claim fourth place, and is set to surpass Japan by fiscal year-end.
How Nvidia built from gaming to global AI backbone
Founded in 1993, Nvidia carved its niche by developing high-end graphics cards for video games. Those same graphics processing units (GPUs) later turned out to be perfect for complex AI workloads.
Its pivot to chips that drive artificial intelligence training has fuelled staggering growth. Back in 2021, Nvidia’s market value was $500 billion — about an eighth of what it is now. In just four years, it has leapfrogged entire industries and regions.
Data from LSEG highlights that Nvidia’s market cap now eclipses the combined worth of all publicly listed companies in Canada and Mexico, as well as the full UK stock market, as reported by Reuters. This scale is striking for a company that employs only about 30,000 people.
Big tech’s bet keeps Nvidia at the top
The world’s tech giants are competing against each other to get the AI crown. The race among Microsoft, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms , Alphabet and Tesla to build AI data centers and dominate the emerging technology has fueled insatiable demand for Nvidia's high-end processors.
Microsoft alone invested billions in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and pumped fresh capital into UAE’s AI firm G42. Tesla, meanwhile, relies on AI models to develop its autonomous driving features. All these systems depend on Nvidia’s chips.
As Reuters noted, “Nvidia’s newest chips have been instrumental in training the largest AI models, driving an insatiable demand for its products.”
A broader AI arms race
Nvidia’s rise is part of a larger reshuffle in the tech hierarchy. Companies that control the AI pipeline — from chips to data centres — are now the biggest spenders and earners.
Competitors like Taiwan’s TSMC and America’s Broadcom are also expanding rapidly. TSMC recently secured billions in US funding to build new chip plants under the CHIPS Act, aiming to ensure America’s lead in semiconductor production.
Meanwhile, Google’s parent Alphabet unveiled its new quantum computing chip, Willow, to correct errors in real-time — a move that could challenge Nvidia’s dominance in some advanced workloads. Meta Platforms, too, has poured billions into the AI start-up Scale AI, signalling more competition ahead.
Tariff jitters and a swift rebound
Not everything has gone Nvidia’s way. This April, Wall Street took a hit when US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs. On 4 April, Nvidia’s share price sank to its lowest close in months, fuelling fears about supply chain costs and trade wars.
But optimism returned just as fast. Shares have rebounded by more than 68% since that low point, boosted by expectations that fresh trade deals will help offset the tariffs.
This comeback is sharper than many analysts predicted. Even after such a dramatic rise, Nvidia’s shares trade at about 32 times projected earnings for the next year — below its five-year average of 41. Analysts see this as proof that investors expect profits to keep climbing.
As AI models grow bigger and more advanced, they need more computing power — and for now, Nvidia’s chips remain the gold standard. From consumer AI assistants to self-driving cars and quantum research, Nvidia’s technology sits at the heart of it all.
For Wall Street, that promise is enough to stake trillions. For Nvidia, the next leap could well be to cement itself as the biggest company the world has ever seen. The company that once powered video games now powers the race for the future.
Shares rose 2.1% to $159.34 at close on Thursday, lifting Nvidia above Apple’s record high market cap of $3.915 trillion, which Apple reached on 26 December 2024. Microsoft holds the second spot with $3.7 trillion, while Apple has slipped to third at $3.19 trillion.
Nvidia's gigantic rise in comparison
Nvidia’s massive rise invites comparisons with entire countries. But there’s a catch. A company’s market value reflects how much investors believe it can earn in future, while a nation’s GDP measures the total value of all goods and services produced in a year.
India’s GDP, for example, covers the output of about 1.5 billion people working in farms, factories, IT services, shops and offices. Nvidia’s valuation, in contrast, hinges on just 30,000 employees building high-value, cutting-edge technology for artificial intelligence.
Yet the symbolism matters. A company built to make video game cards now outvalues the economic output of countries with massive populations and diverse industries.
Top 10 economies in 2025
Here’s how Nvidia’s $3.92 trillion value compares with the world’s largest national economies by GDP (nominal), according to IMF and Forbes India data from mid‑2025
India recently overtook the UK to claim fourth place, and is set to surpass Japan by fiscal year-end.
How Nvidia built from gaming to global AI backbone
Founded in 1993, Nvidia carved its niche by developing high-end graphics cards for video games. Those same graphics processing units (GPUs) later turned out to be perfect for complex AI workloads.
Its pivot to chips that drive artificial intelligence training has fuelled staggering growth. Back in 2021, Nvidia’s market value was $500 billion — about an eighth of what it is now. In just four years, it has leapfrogged entire industries and regions.
Data from LSEG highlights that Nvidia’s market cap now eclipses the combined worth of all publicly listed companies in Canada and Mexico, as well as the full UK stock market, as reported by Reuters. This scale is striking for a company that employs only about 30,000 people.
Big tech’s bet keeps Nvidia at the top
The world’s tech giants are competing against each other to get the AI crown. The race among Microsoft, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms , Alphabet and Tesla to build AI data centers and dominate the emerging technology has fueled insatiable demand for Nvidia's high-end processors.
Microsoft alone invested billions in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and pumped fresh capital into UAE’s AI firm G42. Tesla, meanwhile, relies on AI models to develop its autonomous driving features. All these systems depend on Nvidia’s chips.
As Reuters noted, “Nvidia’s newest chips have been instrumental in training the largest AI models, driving an insatiable demand for its products.”
A broader AI arms race
Nvidia’s rise is part of a larger reshuffle in the tech hierarchy. Companies that control the AI pipeline — from chips to data centres — are now the biggest spenders and earners.
Competitors like Taiwan’s TSMC and America’s Broadcom are also expanding rapidly. TSMC recently secured billions in US funding to build new chip plants under the CHIPS Act, aiming to ensure America’s lead in semiconductor production.
Meanwhile, Google’s parent Alphabet unveiled its new quantum computing chip, Willow, to correct errors in real-time — a move that could challenge Nvidia’s dominance in some advanced workloads. Meta Platforms, too, has poured billions into the AI start-up Scale AI, signalling more competition ahead.
Tariff jitters and a swift rebound
Not everything has gone Nvidia’s way. This April, Wall Street took a hit when US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs. On 4 April, Nvidia’s share price sank to its lowest close in months, fuelling fears about supply chain costs and trade wars.
But optimism returned just as fast. Shares have rebounded by more than 68% since that low point, boosted by expectations that fresh trade deals will help offset the tariffs.
This comeback is sharper than many analysts predicted. Even after such a dramatic rise, Nvidia’s shares trade at about 32 times projected earnings for the next year — below its five-year average of 41. Analysts see this as proof that investors expect profits to keep climbing.
As AI models grow bigger and more advanced, they need more computing power — and for now, Nvidia’s chips remain the gold standard. From consumer AI assistants to self-driving cars and quantum research, Nvidia’s technology sits at the heart of it all.
For Wall Street, that promise is enough to stake trillions. For Nvidia, the next leap could well be to cement itself as the biggest company the world has ever seen. The company that once powered video games now powers the race for the future.
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