Nvidia

The AI boom has had many winners, but Nvidia is the winningest. The company’s value has surged by more than 450% since the AI race kicked off in late 2022. Nvidia, which controls some 80% of the global market for the computer chips needed to build powerful AI tools, is now the world’s third-most-valuable company. CEO Jensen Huang, who steered Nvidia through its early days developing gaming hardware, has become an AI evangelist. Governments and companies alike, he argues, must invest in the chips required to build the new technology, or risk being left behind. As companies scrambled last year to obtain Nvidia’s chips, Huang played kingmaker. He says he selected his customers “fairly,” to ensure no single entity could hoard the scarce resource. Despite competition, demand for Nvidia’s products still outstrips supply, and it’s showing no signs of slowing.