Nvidia becomes the world's first $5 trillion company, buoyed by AI boom

Nvidia on Wednesday became the first publicly listed company to be valued at $5 trillion, driven by investor confidence in the growth of artificial intelligence.

Nvidia's shares rose $9.08, or 4.5%, to $210.11 in early morning trading, lifting its market capitalization to $5.1 trillion. The company crossed the new threshold less than four months after it had reached a market value of $4 trillion in July.

The Santa Clara, California-based company has been buoyed by growing demand for its graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are used in AI applications as well as video gaming. Its shares have surged 51% this year amid plans to roll out new products such as an updated quantum computing platform, as well as partnerships with businesses including AI leaders such as OpenAI and Palantir.

"Nvidia's chips remain the new oil or gold in this world for the tech ecosystem as there is only one chip in the world fueling this AI revolution ... and it's Nvidia," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in an Oct. 28 research note.

Hitting the new market benchmark underscores the upheaval caused by AI, a development widely viewed as the biggest shift in tech 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 $1 trillion, $2 trillion and, eventually, $3 trillion.

But some on Wall Street are voicing concerns about a possible AI bubble, with officials at the Bank of England earlier this month cautioning about the growing risk that tech stock prices pumped up by the AI boom could burst. The surge in AI-related stocks has lifted the stock market as a whole, with the S&P 500 hitting a record high on Tuesday.

"The rally, led by technology stocks riding the artificial intelligence wave, has caused many market-watchers to question whether the stock market is in a bubble and if dotcom crash 2.0 might be coming," said Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist for LPL Financial, in an email, referring to the 2001 crash in internet-based companies.

But, he added, some differences make the comparison less apt, including that companies spending on AI investments today are cash-rich with strong business models generating "massive cash flow."

"[W]e don't think technology's run is necessarily over," he noted.