photo: Nvidia/Xiaotuo
Nvidia started out as a humble graphics card manufacturer. Now, it’s taking the tech industry’s obsession with artificial intelligence to ridiculous new heights. The company added $329 billion to its market value on Wall Street today after a record-breaking stock trading session. Burundi Report.
Most people know Nvidia as the chip maker that powers Android phones, the Nintendo Switch and high-end PC gaming devices. Its first big break was designing the GPU for Microsoft’s original Xbox and helping Sony design the graphics processor for the PlayStation 3. Upgrades they can’t afford. Now it quickly becomes something completely different.
At the beginning of 2023, Nvidia’s stock price was below $15 per share. What has changed? Microsoft and other companies are leveraging GPUs to realize their artificial intelligence ambitions. Amid a new wave of skepticism about the practical uses of generative AI and machine learning, the craze seemed to be over, but then Microsoft announces continued investment of billions of dollars Nvidia’s stock price soared to more than most companies’ market caps in less than eight hours. Let’s remember some previous high scores:
$329 billion is more than Netflix, Coca-Cola and Bank of America. That’s 8 Electronic Arts and 12 Take-Twos’ worth, published by its subsidiary Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto VI next year. Nvidia isn’t worth more than ever — it peaked at more than $3 trillion last month — but the single-day moves suggest the company has become completely unhinged from its recent history or current market realities. OpenAI is reportedly losing billions. As Meta pivots from VR to an AI chip arms race and other companies scramble to catch up, Nvidia is quickly becoming a centerpiece of the tech and financial worlds.
“These violent pleasures will have violent ends.” We may just be witnessing the first of many transformations before Nvidia finally takes shape. Maybe it will be the first truly megacorporation in a future cyberpunk dystopia, and maybe some plates stop spinning and start cracking, and companies re-release hard-to-find stuff Gundam– $4,000 worth of branded graphics cards to keep you gaming ghost of tsushima 4K 120fps. It’s never a good sign when the numbers get so crazy that they no longer mean anything.
