AI frenzy makes Nvidia the world’s most valuable company

What is not in doubt though is how spectacularly it has grown.

Eight years ago, the stock was worth less than 1% of its current price.

Back then, Nvidia’s value came from its competition with rival AMD, in a race to make the best graphics cards.

In recent years though it has benefited from a boom in demand for chips that train and run generative AI models, the most well known of which being OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The firm also benefitted significantly from a rush to mine Bitcoin in 2020, which saw a sharp uptick in sales of its graphics cards.

The rise and rise of the tech giant has been mirrored by the increasingly high profile of its boss, Jensen Huang.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg even called the 61-year-old electrical engineer – known for his signature leather jacket – the “Taylor Swift of tech” for the celebrity status he has achieved.

He’s become well-known thanks in part to his popularity in his native Taiwan, where fans treat him as a rock star – posing for photos and even asking him to sign body parts.

Competition among AI developers is fierce. Microsoft, Google-owner Alphabet, Meta and Apple are just some of the tech heavyweights battling to create a world-beating product.

This competition benefits Nvidia, which as well as developing AI tech of its own, dominates the vast majority of the AI chip market.