The US microchip giant Nvidia has gained the entire value of Britain’s most valuable listed company in a single day as the artificial intelligence boom sent its shares to another record high.
Nvidia’s shares rose by 10.5pc in early trading on Thursday, adding $245bn (£193bn) to its market value. It came after the company said on Wednesday night that sales had more than trebled in a year.
The one-day gain is more than the entire market value of AstraZeneca, the FTSE 100’s most valuable constituent, which is worth around £188 trillion.
Nvidia’s shares have risen by 240pc in the last year as its advanced computer processors have become the bedrock of AI systems such as ChatGPT.
Its market value of $2.58 trillion now puts it within touching distance of the market capitalisation of the entire FTSE 100, which is around $2.77 trillion.
The growth of Nvidia and other so-called “magnificent seven” stocks have propelled US stock markets in the last year, and created an uncomfortable parallel with the London Stock Exchange, which fast-growing technology companies are largely avoiding.
Nvidia said on Wednesday night that revenues in its fiscal first quarter had risen to $26bn, up 262pc against a year earlier. Profits rose by 462pc to $15.2bn.
The company said it would carry out a stock split, in which existing shares are divided into multiple shares, which makes it cheaper to buy individual shares. Jensen Huang, its chief executive, also predicted that the company’s momentum would continue as it introduces more advanced chips.
Mr Huang, who founded Nvidia in 1993, is now worth more than $90bn.
The company has spent most of its life designing microchips for video game graphics, but the processors have proven to be adept at handling artificial intelligence tasks, leading demand for the chips to outstrip supply.
The company is now seen as a bellwether for AI spending, and its results on Wednesday night had been nervously anticipated by traders.
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