The World Has Its First $5T Company

Nvidia just made Wall Street history, becoming the first company to hit a $5 trillion market valuation after its stock surged more than 4% on Wednesday—for a more than 50% rise year to date. CNBC calls it an "extraordinary milestone [that] reflects a remarkable rise for the company, which has evolved from a niche video game processor to an integral player in the artificial intelligence boom." And it's a milestone that comes just three-and-a-half months after it busted through the previous ceiling, reports the AP: becoming the world's first $4 trillion company. By the numbers:

• Shares are trading around $211 as of this writing. The Wall Street Journal reports that with 24.3 billion shares outstanding, it needed to hit $205.76 a share to notch the $5 trillion mark.
• The rise followed CEO Jensen Huang's announcement Tuesday that the company anticipates $500 billion in AI chip orders and also plans to build seven supercomputers for the US government.
• By the IMF's tally, Nvidia's value is greater than the GDP of India, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
• The Journal shares more perspective: Nvidia is bigger than "AMD, Arm Holdings, ASML, Broadcom, Intel, Lam Research, Micron, Qualcomm and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing combined," per Dow Jones Market Data. "Its value also exceeds entire sectors of the S&P 500, including utilities, industrials and consumer staples."