Nvidia lost its spot as the world’s most valuable company to Microsoft after its shares fell more than 3.5% on Thursday.
Artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant briefly occupied the top spot As of Tuesday, the stock market was valued at $3.34tn (£2.64tn).
But on Thursday, Nvidia’s stock price fell to $130.78, and its market value fell to about $3.22 trillion, while Microsoft regained the championship with a price that stabilized at more than $3.3 trillion.
Nvidia’s rise has been fueled by its dominance in what analysts call “tech’s new gold or new oil”: the chips that power artificial intelligence.
Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple – each with a market capitalization of more than $3 trillion – are in a three-way battle to become the world’s most valuable company.
Although Nvidia only briefly held the top spot, some analysts predict that competition between the three major technology companies will remain fierce.
Wedbush Securities said in a report earlier this week: “We believe the battle for $4 trillion in market capitalization in the technology sector next year will be a focal point between Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.”
Nvidia’s stock price has surged due to growing demand for chips that train and run generative artificial intelligence models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The company also benefited greatly from the Bitcoin mining boom in 2020, with its graphics card sales growing significantly.
Its rise is reflected in the growing profile of its boss, Jen-Hsun Huang owes his popularity in part to his popularity in his native Taiwanfans treated him like a rock star.
