
Nvidia is the first US$4 trillion company. Here are three things to know
This week, the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker got another windfall.
The Jensen Huang-led technology giant on Monday received approval from the US government to sell some of its AI chips in China, boosting Nvidia's stock price by 4% to US$170.70 (RM724) a share on Tuesday. Rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc has received similar assurances from the government.
Nvidia's valuation has risen dramatically over the last two years since generative artificial intelligence became a mainstream topic. Last week, the 32-year-old company became the first publicly traded firm to reach US$4 trillion (RM17 trillion) in market capitalisation, beating tech titans including Microsoft and Apple.
Though it's a largely symbolic moment, the milestone raised the stakes for competition in the AI space, which has attracted enormous amounts of capital from established tech players and start-up investors.
"Once you reach that level of market cap, everybody and their brother wants to be you," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with advisory services firm Enderle Group. "So that means that there's going to be a huge focus on creating competitive technologies to Nvidia because it looks incredibly lucrative."
Nvidia has become a primary force in the growth of AI technology, as many applications are built with Nvidia's chips.
Prior to the AI boom, Nvidia was mostly known for creating premium graphics cards that were attractive to gamers in rendering high-speed visuals. Most recently, the company is known for selling powerful chips that help chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and self-driving cars process information quickly enough to make the technology useful. Nvidia said in its 2025 annual report that it powers more than 75% of the supercomputers on the TOP500 list, which ranks the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world.
What is powering Nvidia's rise?
Founded in 1993, Nvidia has ridden many technology waves, including the crypto frenzy.
But lately, Nvidia has seen tremendous growth thanks to worldwide investor interest – and competition for dominance – in artificial intelligence.
Companies are eager to explore how AI can make processes more efficient and figure out complex problems. But getting the computing power behind AI can be expensive if companies are building hardware on their own. That's where Nvidia comes in.
Nvidia's sales increased 69% to US$44.1bil (RM187.20bil) in its fiscal first quarter compared to a year ago. Net income was nearly US$18.8bil (RM80bil), up 26% from a year ago. In its fiscal year 2025, the company's revenue more than doubled to about US$130.5bi (RM554bil) compared to a year earlier, and net income increased 145% to nearly US$72.9bil (RM309bil) compared to fiscal year 2024.
In the last 12 months, Nvidia's shares have increased more than 30%. Since five years ago, the stock has risen more than 16-fold.
"It is clear AI is going to change the world and people want to get on that train, and Nvidia is the easiest entry point," wrote Berna Barshay, a partner at online investment platform Wall Street Beats, in an email. Over time, new winners and formidable rivals may emerge, Barshay said. "But during this foundational period of infrastructure creation, Nvidia has certainly been king."
Other companies were slower to innovate in AI, including Apple and Intel, and underestimated how quickly AI technology would advance, analysts said.
Who is Jensen Huang?
Huang, a former microprocessor designer, discussed the idea behind Nvidia inside a Denny's in San Jose with fellow entrepreneurs Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. The company's name is partly based on the Latin word "invidia" – which means envy, according to the Wall Street Journal .
Many businesses are certainly jealous of Nvidia's success now, but in the 1990s, the company almost went out of business when its first chip, NV1, failed, according to media reports. Huang has said in public comments, including commencement speeches, that adversity can help people become better leaders.
Born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1963, the onetime Denny's dishwasher has become one of the industry's most recognisable names, on par with Apple chief Tim Cook and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Thousands of people watch Huang's keynote at Nvidia's developer conference, as his vision could provide a road map for companies eager to expand investments in AI. Some analysts regularly refer to him as the "godfather of AI."
What challenges lie ahead?
The biggest challenges facing Nvidia are trade wars and competition, analysts say.
Tariffs in the semiconductor industry could hurt companies like Nvidia, which manufacture and sell countless chips abroad. The company said in its annual report that 53% of its revenue in its 2025 fiscal year came from outside the US.
The company said that worldwide geopolitical tensions and conflicts in countries like China, Hong Kong, Israel, Korea and Taiwan, where the manufacturing of its product components and final assembly are concentrated, could disrupt its operations, product demand and profitability.
Nvidia has worked with its production partners to increase US manufacturing of its chips.
Several years ago, the US restricted Nvidia's sales of its chips in China due to concerns that its AI technology could be used to help the Chinese military. Huang has said that since the US government could choose to apply restrictions, he didn't think policymakers needed to be concerned about that and warned that allowing Nvidia to lose market share in China would cede a major advantage to Chinese tech company Huawei, according to Bloomberg.
While many analysts say Nvidia has a significant lead on competitors, it is possible over time they could catch up. OpenAI, which uses Nvidia products for ChatGPT, is developing its own chip design, according to Reuters.
There's also the question of whether the power grid is robust enough to support the infrastructure needs of the fast-growing technology, which could slow down not just Nvidia but the larger AI ecosystem.
Despite the challenges, Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, is bullish on Nvidia, saying it is possible that the company could reach US$5 trillion (RM21 trillion) in market cap during the next 18 months.
"The world's still catching up and the thing is, it's going to take years for them to catch up," he said. "As long as we're looking at the AI revolution as a multidecade transformation, it's going to be really hard to take Nvidia out of that position." – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Tropicana Cenang marks 100 per cent take-up for final phase
LANGKAWI: Tropicana Corporation Bhd celebrated a significant milestone for its Langkawi-based Tropicana Cenang development with the topping off of Assana and Merissa Serviced Suites, which have both achieved 100 per cent take-up. The ceremony also marked the official launch of the final phase, Clarissa Serviced Suites, alongside the unveiling of its show unit. Located on 2.13 hectares of freehold land at Pantai Cenang, the integrated, green-certified project is set for completion next year. The first two phases, Assana and Merissa, offer 831 and 60 fully furnished serviced suites, respectively, designed for resort-style living. Assana units range from 380 to 1,310 sq ft, while Merissa features duplex layouts between 1,066 and 1,303 sq ft. Each phase is positioned for premium beachfront access and comes with concierge services. "With such strong demand, we are rolling out our phase three, Clarissa Serviced Suites, together with a brand-new show unit. Our audience is largely savvy homebuyers, business owners, and families looking for holiday homes," said project managing director Allan Wong and managing director for marketing, sales and business development, Ixora Ang. "Tropicana has expanded its foothold to Langkawi for more than a decade now. Langkawi is known for its duty-free status, cultural heritage, and its rich geological history dating back half a billion years, including mountains, islands, and beaches. "We see the huge growth potential and over the years, we have engaged with various stakeholders, showing our support to the community and authority with R&R upgrade, infrastructure enhancement and charity initiatives," they added. FEATURES AND FUTURE PLANS At 40 storeys, Clarissa Serviced Suites comprises 806 fully furnished units and seven Beachwalk Shoppes. Units range from 536 to 1,356 sq ft, including studio to four-bedroom configurations. Designed with a 'tropical elegance' concept, each unit features integrated kitchen and sanitary fittings, smart storage and minimalist resort-style interiors inspired by Langkawi's coastal setting. Key amenities include a seafront infinity pool, rooftop viewing deck, concierge services and direct access to the beach. The development will be managed by T-Journey and aims for GreenRE certification and QLASSIC workmanship assessment. Tropicana Cenang offers a number of key selling points across all three phases: a freehold title, strategic location just nine kilometres from Langkawi International Airport, premium seafront living and proximity to retail, food and leisure offerings. It is set to be the tallest building in Langkawi and aims to serve a growing market of holidaymakers, retirees and investment buyers. As part of its CSR programme, Tropicana has pledged RM200 for every Clarissa unit sold, targeting RM160,000 in donations over three years. Funds will support local schools, families, elderly care and medical initiatives through its Cenang CSR programme. Tropicana also plans to continue its expansion in Langkawi with future developments including Tropicana Lagoon and Tropicana Shores, in line with its mission of building community-focused, sustainable developments. For more information about Tropicana Cenang, visit this website.


The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
US nuclear weapons agency breached in Microsoft SharePoint hack, Bloomberg News reports
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo (Reuters) -U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration was among those breached by a hack of Microsoft's SharePoint document management software, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. Bloomberg reported that no sensitive or classified information is known to have been compromised in the attack on the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining and designing the nation's cache of nuclear weapons. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The U.S. Energy Department, U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to request for comments from Reuters. (Reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue)


The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Is AI the future of web browsing?
When was the last time you thought about your web browser? If you don't remember, no one will blame you. Web browsers have remained fundamentally unchanged for decades: You open an app, such as Chrome, Safari or Firefox, and type a website into the address bar. Many of us settled on one and fell into what I call 'browser inertia,' never bothering to see if there's anything better. Yet a web browser is important because so much of what we do on computers takes place inside one, including word processing, chatting on Slack and managing calendars and email. That's why I felt excited when I recently tried Dia, a new kind of web browser from the Browser Co. of New York, a startup. The app is powered by generative artificial intelligence, the technology driving popular chatbots like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, to answer our questions. Dia illuminates how a web browser can do much more than load websites – and even help us learn and save time. I tested Dia for a week and found myself browsing the web in new ways. In seconds, the browser provided a written recap of a 20-minute video without my watching its entirety. While scanning a breaking news article, the browser generated a list of other relevant articles for a deeper understanding. I even wrote to the browser's built-in chatbot for help proofreading a paragraph of text. Dia is on the cusp of an emerging era of AI-powered internet navigators that could persuade people to try something new. This week, Perplexity, a startup that makes a search engine, announced an AI web browser called Comet, and some news outlets have reported that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, also plans to release a browser this year. OpenAI declined to comment. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The two companies have denied the suit's claims.) Tech behemoths like Google and Apple have added lightweight AI features into their existing browsers, Chrome and Safari, including tools for proofreading text and automatically summarizing articles. Dia, which has not yet been publicly released, is available as a free app for Mac computers on an invitation-only basis. What does this all mean for the future of the web? Here's what you need to know. What is an AI browser, and what does it do? Like other web browsers, Dia is an app you open to load webpages. What's unique is the way the browser seamlessly integrates an AI chatbot to help – without leaving the webpage. Hitting a shortcut (command+E) in Dia opens a small window that runs parallel to the webpage. Here, you can type questions related to the content you are reading or the video you are watching, and a chatbot will respond. For example: – While writing this column on the Google Docs website, I asked the chatbot if I used 'on the cusp' correctly, and it confirmed that I did. – While reading a news article about the Texas floods, I asked the browser's chatbot to tell me more about how the crisis unfolded. The bot generated a summary about the history of Texas' public safety infrastructure and included a list of relevant articles. – While watching a 22-minute YouTube video about car jump starters, I asked the chatbot to tell me which tools were best. Dia immediately pulled from the video's transcript to produce a summary of the top contenders, sparing me the need to watch the entire thing. In contrast, chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude require opening a separate tab or app and pasting in content for the chatbot to evaluate and answer questions, a process that has always busted my workflow. How does it work? AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude generate responses using large language models, systems that use complex statistics to guess which words belong together. Each chatbot's model has its strengths and weaknesses. The Browser Co. of New York said it had teamed up with multiple companies to use their AI models, including the ones behind Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude. When users type a question, the Dia browser analyzes it and pulls answers from whichever AI model is best suited for answering. For instance, Anthropic's AI model, Claude Sonnet, specializes in computer programming. So if you have questions about something you are coding, the browser will pull an answer from that model. If you have questions about writing, the Dia browser may generate an answer with the model that OpenAI uses for ChatGPT, which is well known for handling language. What I appreciate about this design is that you, the user, don't need to know or think about which chatbot to use. That makes generative AI more accessible to the mainstream. 'You should just be able to say, 'Hey, I'm looking at this thing, I've got a question about it,'' said Josh Miller, the CEO of the Browser Co., which was founded in 2020 and has raised over $100 million. 'We should be able to answer it for you and do work on your behalf.' But aren't there imperfections? While Dia proved helpful in most of my tests, it was, like all generative AI tools, sometimes incorrect. While I was browsing Wirecutter, a New York Times publication that reviews products, I asked the chatbot if there were any deals on the site for water filters. The chatbot said no, even as I read about a water filtration system that was on sale. Miller said that because the browser drew answers from various AI models, its responses were subject to the same mistakes as their respective chatbots. Those occasionally get facts wrong and even make things up, a phenomenon known as 'hallucination.' More often than not, however, I found Dia to be more accurate and helpful than a stand-alone chatbot. Still, I double-checked answers by clicking on any links Dia's bot was citing, like the articles about the recent floods in Texas. What about privacy? Asking AI to help with a webpage you're looking at means that data may be shared with whatever AI model is being used to answer the question, which raises privacy concerns. The Browser Co. said that only the necessary data related to your requests was shared with its partners providing AI models, and that those partners were under contract to dispose of your data. Privacy experts have long warned not to share any sensitive information, like a document containing trade secrets, with an AI chatbot since a rogue employee could gain access to the data. So I recommend asking Dia's chatbot for help only with innocuous browsing activities like parsing a YouTube video. But when browsing something you wouldn't want others to know about, like a health condition, refrain from using the AI. This exchange – potentially giving up some privacy to get help from AI – may be the new social contract going forward. How much will this cost? Dia is free, but AI models have generally been very expensive for companies to operate. Consumers who rely on Dia's AI browser will eventually have to pay. Miller said that in the coming weeks, Dia would introduce subscriptions costing US$5 a month to hundreds of dollars a month, depending on how frequently a user prods its AI bot with questions. The browser will remain free for those who use the AI tool only a few times a week. So whether an AI browser will be your next web browser will depend largely on how much you want to use, and pay, for these services. So far, only 3% of the people who use AI every day are paid users, according to a survey by Menlo Ventures, a venture capital firm. That number could grow, of course, if generative AI becomes a more useful tool that we naturally use in everyday life. I suspect the humble web browser will open that path forward. – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.