By Noel Randewich
(Portal) – Nvidia's stock market value closed above $2 trillion for the first time on Friday after an upbeat report from Dell Technologies reignited Wall Street's AI-powered rally.
Nvidia shares rose 4% after Dell, which sells high-end servers powered by Nvidia processors, gave an upbeat forecast late Thursday that pointed to a surge in orders for its AI-optimized servers.
Shares of Dell rose as much as 38% to a record high before ending the session up 32%.
Friday's rally put Nvidia's market capitalization at $2.06 trillion, making it Wall Street's third most valuable company behind Microsoft and Apple at $3.09 trillion and $2.77 trillion, respectively.
Super Micro Computer, another company that sells servers made with Nvidia chips, rose 4.5%.
Other AI-related chipmakers rose to record highs, with Broadcom and Marvell Technology each rising about 8%, while Advanced Micro Devices rose over 5%.
The PHLX chip index rose 4.3% to its own record high, extending its 2024 gain to 18%.
Nvidia controls about 80% of the market for high-end AI chips. Customers include ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, which are securing scarce supplies of its components to compete in the fast-growing generative AI sector.
The company has recently become Wall Street's most traded stock in terms of value, replacing Tesla. Investors swapped an average of $36 billion worth of Nvidia shares over the last 30 sessions, compared to $21 billion a day for Tesla.
Trading in Nvidia shares reached $38 billion on Friday.
On February 23, the Santa Clara, California-based company added $277 billion to its stock market value in just one session, a Wall Street record, after forecasting a roughly three-fold increase in quarterly revenue.
Nvidia shares are now up 66% in 2024 after more than tripling last year. Last month its market value surpassed Amazon and Alphabet.
The story goes on
A week ago, Nvidia's stock market value rose just above $2 trillion for the first time before declining again at the end of the session.
According to LSEG data, Saudi Aramco has a market capitalization of $2.045 trillion, although more than 90% of it is closely held by the government of Saudi Arabia and less than 2% of its shares are available for trading by investors.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Will Dunham)