Business
How Santa Clara chipmaker Nvidia became one of the world's most valuable companies in the AI boom
For more than a decade, with only a few interruptions, Apple held the title of the world’s most valuable company, becoming the first to top $3 trillion in market capitalization — mostly due to the iPhone, a device millions of investors use daily.
Recently, Apple was overtaken by Microsoft, and this week there was briefly a new king of Wall Street — once again a Bay Area company: Nvidia, which makes semiconductors in high demand for artificial intelligence applications. It’s the hottest stock around and the company has a market cap that tops $3.2 trillion.
Here’s what to know about the world’s leading AI chipmaker:
What role is Nvidia playing in the artificial intelligence industry?
Artificial intelligence programs are complex computer applications that rely on massive databases and processing power to produce their results. OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, a much-talked about program released last year that generates text, is estimated to have 1.7 trillion “parameters,” or variables, about 10 times more than its 2020 predecessor — and the complexity is only growing. Nvidia makes a chip called the H100 accelerator that is able to process that data and is in high demand. This month it announced it is making an even more advanced chip.
Has Nvidia always made chips for artificial intelligence?
Nvidia went public in 1999 and for years was seen largely as a manufacturer of premium graphics cards sought after by gamers for their clarity in rendering high-speed visuals. The cards don’t come cheap, with Nvidia’s top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 4090 currently retailing around $1,700. But given its niche position in the industry, Nvidia stock lingered for years under $1 per share, adjusted for stock splits.
When did its fortunes improve?
During last decade’s crypto boom, its powerful chips were sought by “miners” of bitcoin, which employ computer banks to solve puzzles that reward them with cryptocurrency. The demand was so strong Nvidia launched a new chip specifically for miners as its stock surged from 87 cents in May 2016 to more than $7 in October 2018 — before the crypto bubble burst and shares fell under $4.
The fall prompted a shareholder lawsuit over accusations that the company hid how much revenue it was making on crypto-related sales. That suit is currently before the Supreme Court.
What happened after the collapse of the crypto boom?
Nvidia enjoyed a resurgence during the pandemic as Americans confined at home turned to their gaming computers. Its annual revenue shot up more than 50% to $16.7 billion in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2021. The company’s cloud computing platform also grew as customers relied on the networks to handle the shift to remote work. Nvidia’s stock topped $19 a share in August 2022 before coming back to earth and trading below $12 later in the year as the pandemic waned.
When did the current stock surge begin?
Nvidia shares have been on a steady upswing since 2021 as the hype over artificial intelligence has become a frenzy — supported by the company’s strong sales growth. Nvidia’s revenue hit $60.9 billion in its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2024. Shares started the year at $48.17 and closed Tuesday at $135.58, a 180% gain that gave it a market value of about $3.34 trillion, briefly surpassing Microsoft.
Can the company keep it up?
Nvidia reported record fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $26 billion, up 262% from a year earlier, as demand for its chips grew beyond cloud-service providers to include consumer internet companies, governments and automotive and healthcare customers. The company’s revenue is projected to grow 44% annually in the near future, according to a FactSet survey of 60 analysts.
What other companies are benefiting from AI?
Microsoft has seen its own stock gain about 20% this year. That’s largely due to its partnership with OpenAI. Microsoft’s Bing browser now offers a chat function powered by Chat GPT-4 that can write emails and perform other tasks. Apple stock also hit a record high this week after it announced its Apple Intelligence platform, which will be integrated into its iPhone, iPad, and Mac lineups.
Is a lot of this just hype like crypto?
Many on Wall Street believe that artificial intelligence is in a different league than blockchain and cryptocurrency, with far more concrete applications. Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. are rolling out new chips to counter Nvidia’s market dominance.
However, there are dissenting voices. Rob Arnott, founder of Newport Beach investment company Research Affiliates, has called Nvidia a great company but warned even last year that its stock performance is unsustainable.
“Overconfident markets paradoxically transform brilliant future business prospects into even more brilliant current stock price levels,” Arnott wrote in a research note. “Nvidia is today’s exemplar of that genre: a great company priced beyond perfection.”
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
new video loaded: Ferrari’s Stock Falls After It Unveils Its Latest Car
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transcript
Ferrari’s Stock Falls After It Unveils Its Latest Car
The Italian sports car manufacturer received significant backlash after it unveiled its first electric vehicle, the Luce, earlier this week.
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It doesn’t shout Ferrari. And for a company whose entire history is based on making dynamic-looking, sleek cars, it’s maybe harder for Ferrari to get around than it is for other manufacturers.
By Jamie Leventhal
May 27, 2026
After nearly 50 years of selling all things comics, Dark Horse is closing its Things From Another World retail locations.
The publishing house, well known for series such as “Hellboy” and “The Umbrella Academy,” operated two storefronts in Oregon and maintained a flagship store at L.A.’s Universal Citywalk. The Oregon shops will close in June, and the L.A. location will close in September. The company said in a statement that these closures are a part of its efforts to “modernize.”
“This was not an easy decision, and we do not take lightly the impact it has on the people directly affected,” Dark Horse said in a statement.
As the company moves away from the retail business, the Oregon-based publisher said it plans to focus more on its creators and writers, “ensuring they have the development support, creative partnerships, and resources to bring their visions to life across film and television.” Over the years, Dark Horse has become one of the largest comics publishers in the country.
The company also recently launched a games division focused on providing creators with development opportunities in interactive entertainment.
Dark Horse added, “We believe these changes further focus Dark Horse on its successful core publishing and collectibles business and on deepening our relationship with our fans and the retail community alike.”
The structural changes came a week after Dark Horse Media, which oversees Dark Horse Comics, was rolled into a new parent company, Fellowship Entertainment. The Stockholm-listed entertainment business was formed through a company split at Embracer Group. Under this separation, Fellowship Entertainment is now home to companies such as Dark Horse Media and Crystal Dynamics, as well as IPs such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “Tomb Raider.”
Dark Horse was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson. He had initially opened Pegasus Books in Bend, Ore., in 1980, with plans to become an author. But as the retail business expanded, he instead decided to get into the publishing industry with Dark Horse. In the first few years of the company, he popularized comic series based on movies such as “Star Wars,” “Aliens” and “Predator.” Today, the company represents over 350 properties across comics, books, films, television, electronic games, toys and collectibles.
The closing of Things From Another World at Universal Citywalk marks the loss of another legacy comic store in the city. In recent years, many storied shops such as Geoffrey’s Comics in Torrance, Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks and Hi De-Ho Comics in Santa Monica have all been forced to close due in part to a struggling retail market.
Ferrari’s first-ever fully electric vehicle triggered some fans who said it looks more like an iPhone than an Italian supercar.
The $640,000 Ferrari Luce, which was unveiled on Wednesday, looks like a distant relative of many Apple products. It was built with the help of Jony Ive, the person who designed the look and feel of the Cupertino company’s iPhone, iPod and Macintosh through 2019.
“Legend has it that if you pull the Ferrari badge off the side of the new Luce you see an Apple logo underneath,” one user wrote on X.
A meme circulated portraying the Luce with iPhone applications photo-shopped onto the top, and another showing the car upside down and plugged into an iPhone charger.
To accommodate more batteries and seats, the new EV is bigger and boxier than most classic Ferraris. Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, which he started in San-Francisco after leaving Apple, was brought in to try to meld the traditions of Ferrari with the new functionality and form allowed by a battery-powered engine.
In a marketing video, Ferrari’s chief design officer, Flavio Manzoni, said he sees the Luce “acting as a bridge between San Francisco and Maranello,” the northern Italian city where Ferrari is headquartered.
The four-door, five-seat car comes onto the scene at a difficult moment for electric vehicles, an industry that has been battered by President Trump’s policies.
Trump has cut EV incentives for manufacturers and customers, prompting several major automakers to move away from EV efforts and focus on gas-powered options.
A luxury EV effort from Sony and Honda, a high-tech vehicle dubbed Afeela, was shut down before it ever hit the road due to Honda paring back its EV offerings.
Legacy automakers such as Ferrari face a particularly difficult landscape for launching an EV, as die-hard fans are attached to traditional, gas-powered models.
Ferraris are known for roaring engines and bold, angular designs, a far cry from the smooth, rounded exterior of the Luce.
To be sure, aggressive redesigns often attract ridicule. The early electric Mustang models were shunned by some but have become popular.
One X user posted a meme with a photo of fictional Italian gangster Tony Soprano saying, “I don’t want any California bulls—.”
The online launch page for the car emphasizes that the Luce is “100% Ferrari.”
Still, Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s former chairman, told reporters on Tuesday that the automaker is “risking the destruction of a legend.”
Ferrari shares have fallen about 8% since the launch of the Luce, signaling investors’ concerns that the car won’t resonate with customers.
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