Nvidia shares closed at an all-time high on Monday, pushing the AI chipmaker to the brink of dethroning Apple as the world’s most valuable company.
With investors betting on strong demand for its current and next-generation AI processors, shares of the Santa Clara, California company rose 2.4% to end the day at 138, 07 USD.
In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company. It was overtaken by Microsoft, and the market capitalization of the tech trio has been flat for several months.
The latest increase lifted Nvidia’s market value to $3.39 trillion, just below Apple’s $3.52 trillion value and above Microsoft’s $3.12 trillion.
Nvidia is Wall Street’s biggest winner in the race between Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and other big tech companies to dominate emerging AI technology.
“We believe that major companies in the AI space…face an investment environment characterized by a Prisoner’s Dilemma – each The company is privately incentivized to continue spending, as the costs of not doing so would be (potentially) enormous.” on Sunday.
TD Cowen reiterated its $165 price target for Nvidia, which it called a “Top Pick,” and said demand for the company’s current generation of AI chips remains strong.
Nvidia in August confirmed reports that its upcoming Blackwell chip production ramp-up had been delayed until the fourth quarter, but downplayed the impact, saying customers were shopping for existing chips.
As investors braced for quarterly reporting season, Apple rose nearly 2% and Microsoft added 0.7%, helping push the S&P 500 up 0.8% to its own record high.
Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft account for about a fifth of the weight of the S&P 500, giving them major influence over the index’s daily gains and losses.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the contract manufacturer that makes Nvidia’s processors, is expected to report a 40% jump in quarterly profit on Thursday, thanks to surging demand.
According to LSEG data, analysts expect spending to build AI data centers will help Nvidia’s annual revenue more than double to nearly $126 billion.
While Nvidia’s rally has lifted the S&P 500 to a record high, investors fear AI optimism could evaporate if there are signs of slowing tech spending.
