Shares of Nvidia surged around 4% on Wednesday, pushing the stock to a fresh record high and making it the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation, surpassing Microsoft.
The rally comes despite the semiconductor giant being effectively shut out of the Chinese market — historically one of its largest revenue sources — due to escalating US export controls.
The stock reached an intraday high of $153.95, overtaking its previous peak, and was trading at $153.53 in afternoon trade.
The stock is also looking at a new closing high, beating its prior record of $149.43 set on January 6.
Nvidia’s market value now stands at approximately $3.75 trillion, edging out Microsoft and placing Apple in third with a market cap near $3 trillion.
Exports to China Blocked, but Demand Elsewhere Soars
The rally defies expectations following new US regulations that cut Nvidia off from selling advanced AI chips to China.
In April, the Trump administration expanded restrictions on AI chip exports, including banning the sale of Nvidia’s H20 processor, which had been specifically designed to comply with earlier limits.
As a result, Nvidia has effectively stopped counting on any revenue from China, the world’s second-largest economy.
“The $50 billion China market is effectively closed to U.S. industry,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last month.
The company also disclosed that it would write off $4.5 billion in inventory and expects the export ban to cost it $8 billion in sales.
Despite this setback, Nvidia’s May earnings report showed that demand from other markets remains strong.
Revenue jumped 69% year-over-year, driven by a 73% surge in its data center segment — the backbone of the AI revolution.
Analysts expect the company to generate nearly $200 billion in revenue for the full fiscal year, a growth of about 53%, according to LSEG data.
Loop Capital lifts price target, sees $6 trillion valuation
Adding to investor optimism, Loop Capital on Wednesday raised its price target on Nvidia from $175 to $250, citing accelerating capital spending by cloud service providers and other major tech buyers on chips that support generative AI workloads.
John Donovan, analyst at Loop Capital, said in a client note that GPUs and custom AI accelerators are taking up an increasing share of total compute infrastructure.
The firm projects spending on such non-CPU hardware could reach $2 trillion by 2028, accounting for up to 60% of global compute capacity, up from around 15% today.
The analysts further added that Nvidia’s dominant position in GPU manufacturing could support a $6 trillion market cap if it delivers on earnings forecasts.
Loop Capital also said the ramp-up of Nvidia’s Blackwell-generation chips, coupled with rising adoption of AI-focused data centres — dubbed “AI factories” — by governments, start-ups, and smaller cloud providers, is setting the stage for sustained demand.
The brokerage expects Nvidia to ship 6.5 million GPUs in 2025 and 7.5 million in 2026, with average selling prices exceeding $40,000 per unit.
Nvidia is holding its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, where investors are expected to focus on how the company plans to sustain its dominant position amid geopolitical headwinds and intensifying competition in the AI chip space.
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