Nvidia Cedes Top Market Spot To Microsoft

Nvidia has ceded the place it briefly held as the US’ most valuable listed company, with Microsoft regaining the top spot.

The past year has seen a significant reshuffling of market values amongst the US’ biggest tech firms as companies and investors pour money into generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Nvidia has seen its stock price rise around 700 percent since the technology came to public attention with the public launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022.

The company makes graphics chips and the accompanying software that have become the industry standard for AI infrastructure.

AI frenzy

Its most recent rally took the firm to a valuation of some $3.34 trillion (£2.64tn) as of Tuesday’s close, edging out Microsoft at $3.31tn and Apple at $3.29tn.

But declines on Thursday and Friday took Nvidia back down to a market valuation of about $3.17tn, while Microsoft rose to $3.34tn.

Apple surpassed Nvidia with a valuation of around $3.22tn on Friday.

The iPhone maker saw a rally earlier this month as investors showed enthusiasm for its Apple Intelligence strategy that sees it building out AI across its devices and adding ChatGPT to iPhones, Macs and other gadgets.

The rally saw it briefly overtake Microsoft at the top of the rankings, a position it ceded to the Windows maker in January.

Three-horse race

Industry watchers expect the three-horse race amongst Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia will continue in the coming months as investors continue to focus on the billions being poured into AI.

Wedbush Securities said in a note last week it expects the coming year to see the companies in a “race to $4 trillion market cap”.