NVIDIA Market Cap Tops Microsoft By $470 Billion

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 30, 12:49PM EDT

Key Points

NVIDIA Is An Arms Merchant
NVIDIA’s Market Share Is 90%

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NVIDIA Market Cap Tops Microsoft By $470 Billion — © 2024 Getty Images / Getty Images News via Getty Images

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has the largest market cap in the world, at $4.25 trillion. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is second, with a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion. That is a difference of $480 billion. That difference is equivalent to the market capitalization of ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM).

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) held the top market cap position for five years. Due to the lack of AI on the latest iPhone, it has fallen to third place, valued at $4.55 trillion. Microsoft held the spot off and on for two years—NVIDIA’s monster earnings and place at the center of the AI economy.

NVIDIA’s shares have risen 114% from their current 52-week low to the 52-week high.

NVIDIA holds a unique position in the tech universe. It is the arms merchant to the AI sector. Every company with massive AI data centers must pay NVIDIA for the chip engines that power them. If a company like Apple has an AI stumble, it has to pay NVIDIA for the hardware to catch up. And AI success stories like Microsoft’s have to pay NVIDIA to maintain their position.

America’s largest tech companies have committed to investing over $300 billion in AI data centers this year. As the industry continues to grow, the figure is expected to be substantial again in 2026. A considerable portion of those investment dollars will go to NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s earnings also drive its valuation. In the recently reported quarter, revenue rose 56% to $46.7 billion. Net income rose 59% to $26.4 billion. At its current revenue run rate, it will be larger than GM based on annual top line.

Another primary reason for NVIDIA’s success is its market share. By most estimates, it holds over 90% of chip sales in its sector. While that lead may shrink, based on its user base, it will not decrease significantly.

NVIDIA’s market cap lead over Microsoft will remain huge.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.