Nvidia just did something no company has ever done before: it hit a $5 trillion market valuation. The chipmaker’s staggering rise marks a new era in Silicon Valley, cementing its role as the engine driving the world’s artificial intelligence boom. Once known mainly for gaming graphics cards, Nvidia is now the company powering everything from ChatGPT to global supercomputers – and its influence is shaping both Wall Street and Washington.
The milestone came only three months after Nvidia crossed the $4 trillion mark, a pace of growth that even veteran analysts call historic. Its shares closed at $207.04 on Wednesday, up 3 percent for the day, giving it a total valuation of $5.03 trillion. That’s more than the entire cryptocurrency market combined. “Nvidia hitting $5 trillion is more than a milestone; it’s a statement,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Nvidia has gone from chipmaker to industry creator.”
CEO Jensen Huang, who founded the company in 1993, has become one of the most powerful figures in tech. Born in Taiwan and raised in the United States, Huang has steered Nvidia from a niche hardware firm into the backbone of the AI economy. Its H100 and Blackwell processors now power everything from OpenAI’s large language models to Elon Musk’s xAI projects. Huang revealed this week that Nvidia has received $500 billion in AI chip orders and plans to build seven supercomputers for the U.S. government – a sign that Nvidia isn’t just riding the AI wave, it’s controlling the tide.
Nvidia’s rise has turned the broader market on its head. The company’s meteoric performance has helped push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs, with Apple and Microsoft also hovering around $4 trillion valuations. Investors remain convinced that AI spending is just getting started, though some warn that the hype is inflating another tech bubble. “The moment investors start demanding cash-flow returns instead of capacity announcements, some of these flywheels could seize,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management.
There’s also a geopolitical subplot. President Donald Trump is expected to discuss Nvidia’s Blackwell chip with China’s President Xi Jinping this week, as U.S. export restrictions on advanced processors continue to strain relations. Huang has walked a careful line, praising U.S. “America First” policies for boosting domestic investment while warning that isolating China could cut off access to half the world’s AI talent.
For now, Nvidia remains untouchable. Rivals like AMD and a growing crop of startups are trying to chip away at its dominance, but none have matched its performance or mindshare. The company will report earnings on November 19 – and if history is any guide, another record could be waiting right around the corner.
