Nvidia becomes the first $5tn company
Experts have warned of the growing risk that tech stock prices pumped up by the AI boom could burst
Nvidia has become the first five trillion dollar (£3.8 trillion) company, just three months after the Silicon Valley chipmaker was the first to break through the four trillion dollar (£3 trillion) barrier.
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Hitting the new benchmark puts more emphasis on the upheaval being unleashed by an artificial intelligence (AI) craze that is widely viewed as the biggest tectonic shift in technology since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone 18 years ago.
Apple rode the iPhone's success to become the first publicly traded company to be valued at one trillion dollars, two trillion dollars and eventually three trillion dollars.
But there are concerns of a possible AI bubble, with officials at the Bank of England earlier this month flagging the growing risk that tech stock prices pumped up by the AI boom could burst.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised a similar alarm.
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The ravenous appetite for Nvidia's chips is the main reason that the company's stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
On Wednesday the shares touched 207.86 dollars (£157.40) in early morning trading with 24.3 billion shares outstanding, putting its market cap at 5.05 trillion dollars (£3.82 trillion).
In comparison, Nvidia's value is greater than the GDP of India, Japan and the United Kingdom, according to the IMF.
On Tuesday Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang disclosed 500 billion dollars (£378 billion) in chip orders.
The company also announced a partnership with Uber on robotaxis and a one billion dollar (£757 million) investment in Nokia, with the two planning to work together on 6G technology.
In addition, Nvidia is teaming with the US Department of Energy to build seven new AI supercomputers.
Last month Nvidia announced that it will invest 100 billion dollars (£75 billion) in OpenAI as part of a partnership that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centres to ramp up the computing power for the owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.
In August Mr Huang said Nvidia was discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump said on Air Force One that he will speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Nvidia's chips on Thursday.