Nvidia shares closed at a record high on Friday for the first time since October, pushing the company’s market value past $5 trillion. Investors eagerly bought into the AI chip market ahead of earnings reports next week from major tech companies.
The stock climbed 4.3% to close at $208.27. Nvidia’s value has soared more than 14 times since the end of 2022, fueled by the huge demand for artificial intelligence services and models. Major tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, along with AI model developers OpenAI and Anthropic, all rely on Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs).
Friday’s rally began after chipmaker Intel announced better-than-expected earnings late on Thursday. Intel, which had largely been on the sidelines of the AI market until recently, saw its shares jump 24%, marking its best performance since 1987.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a competitor to both Nvidia and Intel, also saw its shares surge by 14%. Mobile device chipmaker Qualcomm climbed 11%, showing a broad positive trend across the chip sector.
Earlier, investors had been pulling back from large technology stocks as oil prices skyrocketed due to the Iran conflict and resulting supply chain issues. However, broad areas of technology are now back in favor, with demand for AI infrastructure showing no signs of slowing down.
The Nasdaq index is now up 15% in April, on track for its best monthly performance since April 2020. Despite its current dominance, Nvidia does face increasing competition in the AI space. Alphabet, a major customer of Nvidia, announced new chips that aim to compete with Nvidia’s offerings. These new chips will become available to cloud customers later this year.
