Nvidia Shares Hit a New High: The Company's Market Capitalization Approached $6 Trillion

Shares of chipmaker and AI developer Nvidia hit a new all-time high for the first time since May: On October 2, they rose as much as 3% to a peak of $237.87 per share. At the time of publication, Nvidia’s stock had slowed its gains slightly—it was up about 2% and trading at $235.4. The stock has risen by nearly a quarter from its late-July low. Investors have once again begun actively buying shares of the world’s most valuable publicly traded company following a two-month sell-off that wiped out more than $1 trillion of its market capitalization, Bloomberg notes. The chipmaker came under pressure due to concerns about the prospects for artificial intelligence.

On Friday, Nvidia shares rose amid gains in major U.S. stock market indices: traders were encouraged by data showing a slowdown in U.S. job growth. The market now hopes that the Federal Reserve will not have to raise interest rates in the near future.

In recent weeks, the chipmaker’s stock gains have also been fueled by expectations that AI agents, such as Meta Platforms’ Muse, could further boost demand for semiconductors, according to Bloomberg. The stock received another boost after Nvidia announced on Monday that it was expanding its share buyback program to a record $150 billion.

Nvidia's rebound followed several months of sharp shifts in sentiment surrounding the AI sector, according to Bloomberg. Investors were concerned both about the hundreds of billions of dollars that companies are pouring into AI infrastructure and the security risks that this technology could potentially pose to humanity. Earlier this week, the chipmaker also unveiled a new two-tier security system for AI, designed to prevent AI agents from spiraling out of control. Nvidia stated that the new system would have been able to stop the recent hack of Hugging Face by OpenAI models.

Overall, Nvidia’s stock has risen by about 27% since the start of the year and is on track for its fourth consecutive year of double-digit returns. The company’s market capitalization currently stands at about $5.7 trillion, meaning Nvidia is less than $300 billion away from becoming the first company in history with a market capitalization of $6 trillion, notes Bloomberg.

Wall Street is optimistic about the prospects for the AI infrastructure developer’s stock, according to MarketWatch data: 69 of the 72 analysts tracking the stock recommend buying it, two recommend holding it, and only one recommends selling it. Wall Street’s average price target for Nvidia shares is $333.50 per share, which is 44.5% higher than the closing price on October 1.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor