NVIDIA Surpasses $1 Trillion Market Cap

Chip-manufacturing giant NVIDIA (NDVA) surpassed a $1 trillion market cap, bringing the company’s total value close to that of all cryptocurrencies in the world combined.

• The company’s stock opened at $405.96 on Tuesday, before rising as high as $416.39 by 9:50 am ET. The 6% pump marked a 52-week high for the company.
• Shares have since cooled to just $402.53 a piece as of 12:47 pm ET, bringing them slightly below the $404.86 level needed to maintain a $1 trillion value. 
• The chipmaker’s stock began soaring last week after publishing quarterly earnings results well above consensus estimates, uplifting other firms in the industry. Despite initially tanking when the market opened, Intel (INTC) has now also risen by 3.17% on the day. 
• Both NVIDIA and Intel have been tied to the cryptocurrency mining industry, helping design the specialized computer hardware needed to mine coins in the most cost-effective manner. 
• Back in September, Chinese vendors for NVIDIA-built graphical processing units (GPUs) were forced to lower their costs significantly in response to the Ethereum Merge, which rendered Ethereum’s popular GPU mining industry obsolete. 
• While many former Ethereum miners repurposed their GPUs to mine other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum Classic (ETC), such networks are generally far less profitable.
• Chipmakers have rebounded in 2023 as tech companies broadly rise in response to slowing interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. 
• They’ve also benefitted from the artificial intelligence frenzy that’s gripped investors in the past few months, thanks to programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, for which powerful GPUs are critical.