Remember when NVIDIA was just that chip company nobody really talked about? Yeah, those days are long gone. On Wednesday, July 9, the AI darling hit a milestone that literally no other company has ever reached: a $4 trillion market cap. Let that sink in for a second.
To put this in perspective, five years ago in July 2020, NVIDIA was worth about $323 billion. Apple was the king then at $1.7 trillion. Now? NVIDIA has lapped the field so hard it’s basically playing a different sport.
The numbers are absolutely bonkers. NVIDIA gained 239% in 2023 and another 171% in 2024. This year started rough—the stock dipped to $96 per share in April—but since then it’s surged nearly 70% to around $163. That’s the kind of recovery that makes investors either very happy or very confused about what they’re doing with their money.
Here’s the wild part: NVIDIA didn’t hit $1 trillion until June 2023. Then it took just eight months to reach $2 trillion in February 2024. Four months later, boom—$3 trillion in June 2024. Now it’s at $4 trillion. The acceleration is genuinely insane.
The company has basically become synonymous with the AI boom. Every time someone mentions artificial intelligence and the stock market in the same sentence, NVIDIA’s name pops up like it’s been summoned. And honestly? Fair enough. The company makes the chips that power basically everything AI-related, so when the AI hype train rolls through town, NVIDIA’s the conductor.
Currently, there are only five companies with market caps over $2 trillion: NVIDIA at $4 trillion, Microsoft at $3.7 trillion, Apple at $3.2 trillion, Amazon at $2.4 trillion, and Alphabet at $2.1 trillion. NVIDIA’s basically lapping them all.
Even with these massive gains, Wall Street analysts think there’s more juice in the tank. The median price target sits at $175, suggesting about 8% upside over the next 12 months. That might sound modest compared to what we’ve already seen, but in the world of mega-cap stocks, 8% is nothing to sneeze at.
The real question everyone’s asking: Can NVIDIA hit $5 trillion? At this point, why not? The company has defied expectations so thoroughly that betting against it feels like a losing game. The AI revolution isn’t slowing down, and NVIDIA’s got the chips everyone needs—literally.
Of course, nothing goes up forever. Valuations can get stretched, competition could emerge, and the AI bubble could pop. But for now, NVIDIA’s sitting pretty as the most valuable company on the planet, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. If you’re not paying attention to this stock, you’re probably missing one of the biggest stories in markets.
