Nvidia temporarily returned to the top of the list of the world’s most valuable companies when stocks surged in early trading on Thursday following a strong first-quarter revenue report.
NVIDIA (NVDA) shares rose more than 6% in early trading on Thursday, adding more than $200 billion to the company’s market value, pushing the company’s market capitalization to $3.49 trillion and taking on Microsoft (MSFT) $3.41 trillion. Nvidia shares abandoned the ground throughout the day, and Microsoft ultimately overtook the market-valued AI-chip giant by the end of Thursday.
Nvidia’s shares responded to a solid quarterly report on Thursday afternoon. Nvidia reported record revenue in the first quarter as AI demand remained strong.
For almost a year, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple (AAPL) have been competing to become the most valuable companies in the world. The three are the only companies that have achieved market value of over $3 trillion. Nvidia reached that milestone almost a year ago, but Apple first closed at $3 trillion in June 2023, and Microsoft reached $3 trillion in January 2024.
All three stocks have been hit to some extent by economic and trade uncertainty this year, but only Microsoft and Nvidia are shaking the worst. Stocks of Nvidia and Microsoft have risen about 5% and 9% respectively since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Apple’s stock has fallen by about 20%, struck by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs in China, and the company has gathered most of its products and claims it will move production to the US.
Nvidia’s market capitalization is below the $3.66 trillion record since early January, when stocks were set at an all-time high, despite profits on Thursday.
Updated – May 2025: This story has been updated with the latest stock price and market value data.
