Nvidia’s stock is up more than 22% this year, and the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index has risen nearly 15%. That gap is part of why the chipmaker has now hit a $4 trillion market value, a level Wall Street’s AI optimism has pushed it to, according to the Economic Times.
The climb has not been smooth. At the start of the year a discounted Chinese AI model from DeepSeek pummelled the stock. Then came April, when global markets reeled from President Donald Trump’s tariff actions. Nvidia has since recovered about 74% from its April lows, helped by several countries holding trade talks with the U.S. before the tariffs come into effect on August 1.
How fast it got here
Nvidia first reached a $1 trillion market value in June 2023. It tripled that in roughly a year. Apple and Microsoft are the only other U.S. firms worth more than $3 trillion, and Nvidia outpaced both over that stretch.
The revenue figures are large too. In the first quarter Nvidia reported $44.1 billion, up 69% from a year earlier, with a profit of 81 cents per share. For the second quarter, due on August 27, it expects revenue of $45 billion, give or take 2%.
The “sovereign AI” bet
Analysts at Citi raised their price target on the stock to $190 from $180, above the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $174. Their reason is demand for what the industry calls sovereign AI.
In plain terms, sovereign AI means artificial intelligence built for a single customer, often a national government, and run on systems that customer controls. Citi’s analysts say Nvidia is involved in every sovereign AI deal, with significant investment coming from governments and other organisations.
Citi also lifted its forecast for the AI data centre market. It now expects $563 billion by 2028, up from a previous estimate of $500 billion, and it attributes the revision to higher-than-expected sovereign AI demand.
