Nvidia was the world’s top-performing company last year, thanks to the AI craze and demand for artificial intelligence chips in all sectors.
US chipmaker Nvidia ended 2024 with a market capitalization of $3.28 trillion. This figure increased more than 2.7 times compared to a year earlier ($1.2 trillion). Nvidia is also now the second most valuable company in the world, after Apple ($3.7 trillion).
Shares of billionaire Jensen Huang’s chipmaker surged nearly 180% last year, making it the third-best performer on the S&P 500 index. Over the past five years, Nvidia’s shares have risen more than 2,700%.
The chipmaker has twice surpassed Apple and Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company in the past year, most recently in early November, when its market capitalization reached $3.38 trillion. Its revenue has doubled or tripled in the last five quarters, as tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI have bought billions of dollars worth of graphics chips.
Wall Street remains enthusiastic about Nvidia. Investors believe that its dominance in AI chips will help the company maintain its high growth rate. Nvidia currently accounts for 80% of the global AI chip market, considered a bellwether for the market.
Most analysts are bullish on the company’s stock through 2025. Citi analyst Atif Malik believes the new Blackwell chips will help Nvidia’s stock continue to rise at a double-digit pace.
“Blackwell’s sales will skyrocket. We recommend buying Nvidia shares, with a price target of $175 this year, up 27% from current levels,” Malik predicted.
Analysts at Bank of America even think the stock could rise 39% to $190. Nvidia shares closed the first trading day of the year at $138.
Not only institutions, individual investors have also bet on the stock of billionaire Jensen Huang’s chip company, contributing to the stock’s surge last year. According to research firm Vanda Research, retail investors poured nearly $30 billion into the stock last year. That’s 10 times more than three years ago, making Nvidia the stock most net bought by retail investors last year.
