NEW YORK, June 6: Nvidia, the chip giant, has reached a market value exceeding $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion), surpassing Apple to claim the second spot as the most valuable publicly listed company globally.

On Wednesday, Nvidia's shares soared over 5%, reaching more than $1,224, further solidifying its remarkable ascent. This surge is part of a rapid climb that commenced last year, driven by widespread anticipation that the US-based firm is well-positioned to benefit significantly from the ongoing wave of investment in artificial intelligence (AI).

The company's rise in value now places it just behind Microsoft, another major player in the tech industry, primarily due to its investments in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. Nvidia's market capitalization, previously valued at "just" $2 trillion as recently as February, experienced a renewed surge in share purchases following the announcement last month of plans for a stock split.

Scheduled to take place on Friday, the stock split will increase the number of shares by a factor of 10, subsequently reducing their value. This strategic move aims to make Nvidia shares more accessible to small-scale investors, generating heightened demand for the stock.

Established in 1993, Nvidia initially gained prominence for manufacturing computer chips specialized in graphics processing, particularly for gaming. Anticipating the AI revolution, the company began incorporating features into its chips aimed at enhancing machine learning capabilities, contributing to its expanding market share.

Nvidia is now regarded as a pivotal player in assessing the proliferation of AI-powered technology across various sectors, a phenomenon Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, has hailed as the "next industrial revolution." The company has witnessed explosive growth, reporting a staggering $26 billion in sales for the three months ending April 28 - a figure more than triple the corresponding period in 2023, with an 18% increase from the previous quarter.

Optimism surrounding the potential of AI has been a driving force behind the broader market rally observed over the past year, propelling both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record highs on Wednesday.

While Apple had experienced a slowdown in sales growth earlier this year, recent weeks have seen its shares buoyed by anticipation regarding its AI integration strategy. With shares rising by 0.7%, Apple's market capitalization currently stands at approximately $3 trillion, calculated by multiplying the company's share price by its total number of shares outstanding.

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