With a 2.4% increase in its share price on Wednesday, the chipmaker’s stock hit $164, strengthening its place at the top of the global tech hierarchy, above Apple and Microsoft.

Not without challenges, the California-based firm, which was founded in 1993, surged past a $2 trillion valuation earlier this year in February, then blew past $3 trillion in June. 

Now, in under seven months, Nvidia has doubled its worth, a feat unmatched in stock market history. And it did all of this amid geopolitical friction, export bans, and a volatile tech environment.

Despite being locked out of the $50 billion Chinese chip market due to tightening U.S. export controls, Nvidia’s performance has barely flinched. In fact, CEO Jensen Huang was apt on how this affects them: “The $50 billion China market is effectively closed to U.S. industry,” he said in May, adding that losing China would be a “tremendous loss.”

But even with an $8 billion sales gap from blocked shipments of its H20 chips to China, Nvidia’s machine has not stalled. In the first quarter of FY2026 alone, the company posted $44.1 billion in revenue, a 69% jump from the same period last year. It’s now guiding for $45 billion in Q2. Some analysts are projecting as much as $200 billion in full-year revenue, with expectations rising to $250 billion by FY2027.

So, what’s driving this engine? Nvidia has built a near-monopoly in the data centre GPU market, with a 90% share. It supplies the processing muscle behind OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and enterprise AI workloads across Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla. 

Despite murmurs earlier this year noting OpenAI might explore alternatives, the firm publicly reaffirmed its reliance on Nvidia’s chips, silencing any talk of defection.

From Europe to the U.S., policy changes are tilting in Nvidia’s favour. CEO Huang has hinted at big expansion plans for Europe, where AI infrastructure uptake still lags. Back in the U.S., legislative tailwinds are pushing forward.

The newly passed “Big Beautiful Bill” is expected to increase semiconductor tax credits, strengthening Nvidia’s already-tight supply chains.

Even Nvidia’s market cap now tells a global story: it’s worth more than the entire London Stock Exchange and overshadows the combined value of all public companies in Canada and Mexico.

While some might see the company’s meteoric rise as a bubble waiting to pop, Wall Street seems to disagree. Nvidia’s stock has surged 74% since April and risen more than fifteenfold over five years.

And unlike the dot-com era’s inflated valuations, Nvidia’s growth is backed by tangible demand, from governments, corporations, and developers looking to harness artificial intelligence.

While other tech giants are trying to diversify or catch up, Nvidia has entrenched itself as the foundation of AI infrastructure worldwide. 

The jump followed reports that Meta is developing a full suite of AI tools tailored for advertisers. Investors clearly liked what they heard. By the end of trading, Meta shares had gained $23.41, closing at $670.90, far outpacing the S&P 500, which rose by just 0.4%.

Zuckerberg’s new total, according to Forbes, is $231.6 billion. That places him squarely in second place on the global billionaires’ list, nudging Amazon’s Jeff Bezos down a notch. Elon Musk still leads, with a net worth of $420.6 billion, despite shedding $2.1 billion the same day.

To put this in perspective: Jeff Bezos added $1.5 billion on Monday. Oracle’s Larry Ellison gained nearly $1 billion. Steve Ballmer inched forward by $359 million. Meanwhile, others saw red. Bernard Arnault and his family lost $2.9 billion.

Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin slipped by $2 billion and $1.9 billion respectively. It was a mixed day for billionaires, but Zuckerberg emerged the biggest winner.

Meta’s renewed focus on artificial intelligence is a calculated pivot. While the company has poured years, and billions, into its metaverse project, returns have been elusive. Now, it appears Mark Zuckerberg is betting on a more immediate driver of growth: AI. And it’s paying off.

He still owns around 13% of Meta and controls its decision-making through a dual-class share structure. Despite years of issues over privacy, content moderation, and monopolistic practices, Meta remains strong, with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp reaching billions of users daily.

It’s also worth remembering: in 2015, he and his wife Priscilla Chan committed to giving away 99% of their Meta holdings during their lifetimes through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List updates constantly, reflecting the unbalanced nature of tech wealth. Seven of the top ten fortunes are still rooted in technology. And as this week proves, one product announcement, or even a rumour of one, can dramatically shift the order.