Nvidia's market value has surged past $3tn (£2.3tn), lifting the chip giant ahead of Apple to become the second most valuable publicly listed company in the world. The firm's share price rose more than 5% on Wednesday, to more than $1,224. It extended a breathtakingly rapid climb that started last year, powered by bets that the US firm is positioned to be a major winner from a wave of investment in artificial intelligence (AI). Its market value now sits just behind Microsoft, another key player in the industry thanks to its investments in Chat GPT-maker OpenAI. Founded in 1993, Nvidia was originally known for making the type of computer chips that process graphics, particularly for computer games. Long before the AI revolution, it started adding features to its chips that it says help machine learning - all of which has helped it increase its market share. It is now seen as a key company to watch to see how fast AI-powered tech is spreading across the business world, a shift boss Jensen Huang has declared the dawn of the "next industrial revolution". His company has seen explosive growth, reporting sales of $26bn in the three months to 28 April - more than triple the same period in 2023, and up 18% from the previous three month. Apple had appeared to be losing out earlier this year as sales growth stalled. But in recent weeks, its shares have been buoyed by anticipation over how it plans to incorporate AI into its own strategy.
