Nvidia overtakes Apple as world's most valuable company
Adds detail on stock moves in paragraph 3, smartphone competition in paragraph 13, upcoming quarterly results in paragraph 14 and 15
By Sruthi Shankar and Noel Randewich
Oct 25 (Reuters) -Nvidia NVDA.O dethroned Apple AAPL.O as the world's most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligencechips.
Nvidia's stock market value briefly touched $3.53 trillion, slightly aboveApple's $3.52 trillion, LSEG data showed.
Nvidia was last up 2.2%, with a market value of $3.52 trillion, while Apple's shares rose 0.9%, valuing the iPhone maker at $3.54 trillion.
In June, Nvidia briefly became the world's most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft MSFT.O and Apple. The tech trio's market capitalizations have been neck-and-neck for several months.
Microsoft's market value stood at $3.20trillion, with its stock up 1.3%.
The Silicon Valley chipmaker is the dominant supplier of processors used in AI computing, and the company has become the biggest winner in a race between Microsoft, AlphabetGOOGL.O, Meta PlatformsMETA.O and other heavyweights to dominate the emerging technology.
Known since the 1990s as a designer of processors for videogames, Nvidia'sstock has risen about 18%so far in October, with a string of gains coming after OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced a funding round of $6.6 billion.
Nvidia and other semiconductor stocks got a lift on Friday after data storage maker Western Digital WDC.O reported quarterly profit that beat analysts' estimates, buoying optimism about data center demand.
"More companies are now embracing artificial intelligence in their everyday tasks and demand remains strong for Nvidia chips," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
"It is certainly in a sweet spot and so long as we avoid a big economic downturn in the United States, there is a feeling that companies will continue to invest heavily in AI capabilities, creating a healthy tailwind for Nvidia."
Nvidia's shares hit a record high on Tuesday, building on a rally from last week when TSMC 2330.TW, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a forecast-beating 54% jump in quarterly profit driven by soaring demand for chips used in AI.
Meanwhile, Apple is struggling with tepid demand for its smartphones. iPhone sales in Chinaslipped 0.3% in the third quarter, while sales of phones made by rival Huawei [RIC:RIC:HWT.UL] surged 42%.
With Apple set to report its quarterly results on Thursday, analysts on average see its revenue climbing 5.55% year over year to $94.5 billion, LSEG data showed.
That compares with analysts' projections for Nvidia of nearly 82% revenue growth to $32.9 billion.
Shares of Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft have an outsized influence on the richly valued technology sector as well as the broader U.S. stock market, with the trio accounting for about a fifth of the S&P 500 index's .SPX weight.
Optimism about the prospects for AI, expectations that the Federal Reserve will considerably bring down U.S. interest rates, and most recently, an upbeat start to the earnings season, helped lift thebenchmark S&P 500 to an all-time high last week.
Nvidia's massive gains have helped boost the stock's appeal for option traders and the company's options are among the most traded on any given day in recent months, according to data from options analytics provider Trade Alert.
The stock has surged nearly 190% so far this year as the boom in generative AI led toa series of blowout forecasts from Nvidia.
"The question is whether the revenue stream will last for a long time and will be driven by the emotion of investors rather than by any ability to prove or disprove the thesis that AI is overdone," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.
"I think Nvidia knows that near term, their numbers are likely to be quite remarkable."
Nvidia's race to become world's most valuable company https://reut.rs/48kdnTm
Reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Saqib Ahmed in New York and Paolo Laudani in Gdansk; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Richard Chang
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