\n Tech giant Nvidia became the first company in corporate history to briefly surpass a $5 trillion valuation in October thanks to its role in the AI boom.\n <\/p>\n
\n Insatiable demand from global companies for its AI chips has cemented its dominance with an 81% market share by revenue for data center chips, according to research from the International Data Corporation. That, in turn, has propelled the explosive growth of Nvidia\u2019s stock (NVDA<\/a>), which has surged 12-fold since the groundbreaking release of OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT AI chatbot in November 2022.\n <\/p>\n \n Nvidia\u2019s sales and profits were up more than 60%<\/a> in the October quarter compared to the previous year, soaring past Wall Street\u2019s expectations. Last month, it unveiled the next generation Vera Rubin chip,<\/a> widely seen as the company\u2019s next growth driver. Nvidia now expects its total sales to hit new records in 2026, projecting around $500 billion in revenue.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, the tech giant is facing a growing set of challenges, from intensifying competition to lingering concerns of an AI bubble and relentless pressure to demonstrate growth after several explosive quarters.\n <\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s a look at Nvidia\u2019s success in four graphics:\n <\/p>\n \n Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang founded the company in 1993 with a focus on chips known as graphics processing units for video games. Its GPUs were later found to be well suited for AI training.\n <\/p>\n \n But the company\u2019s breakout moment didn\u2019t come until after ChatGPT\u2019s arrival in late 2022, widely considered to be the kickoff to today\u2019s AI boom.\n <\/p>\n \n Shares of Nvidia climbed at steep pace, making the AI giant the ninth company in the world to reach a $1 trillion valuation in 2023, three decades after its establishment. While the AI giant has shed some value in recent months, it remains the world\u2019s most valuable company.\n <\/p>\n \n But Nvidia\u2019s secret sauce is more than just GPUs. It also offers full server racks packed with other types of chips that are critical to AI workloads and software that allows developers to tailor their code to make the most of its chips. Now it\u2019s trying to lay the foundation for data centers of the future, which it calls \u201cAI factories.\u201d The company is also trying to position itself at the center of emerging technologies like robots, quantum computers and self-driving cars. It announced partnerships with Uber to build self-driving cars and with the US Department of Energy to develop quantum supercomputers with its AI chips last year.\n <\/p>\n \n For much of 2025, the company, like other major tech firms, raced to strike deals and pour in investment. In April, Nvidia said it plans to build $500 billions of AI infrastructure<\/a> with its partners in the US. In September, Nvidia invested $5 billion in Intel<\/a> to develop custom data centers. Days later, Nvidia announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI,<\/a> under which it will invest up to $100 billion in the latter in expanding AI data center capacity built around its chips. Despite reports of recent friction between the two AI giants the executives of both companies have since publicly said they remain committed to the deal.\n <\/p>\n \n As Nvidia\u2019s chips have become the backbone of the global AI industry, the company\u2019s partnerships have expanded well beyond North America. In Europe, Nvidia is working with telecoms and governments<\/a> in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to deploy sovereign AI infrastructure and build AI technology centers. In South Korea, it is collaborating with government and businesses<\/a> to deploy over 26,000 chips.\n <\/p>\n \n However, fears of a bubble<\/a> have clouded the outlook for AI, a worry Huang has repeatedly brushed aside<\/a>. At the same time, Nvidia is facing growing pressure from rivals like AMD and customers developing their own chips to reduce reliance on the industry\u2019s dominant supplier.\n <\/p>\n \n In China, once a major market for Nvidia, US tech controls have restricted exports of its cutting-edge chips, significantly impacting sales in the world\u2019s second largest economy. Although Huang has managed to convince President Donald Trump to reverse some restrictions and allow sales of its second most powerful chips, Beijing has yet to confirm it will allow its companies to purchase them.\n <\/p>\n \n These concerns have not stopped Nvidia and Huang. The company\u2019s new Rubin chips, currently in production, will arrive in the second half of 2026. Major cloud providers, including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and CoreWeave, will be among the first to deploy it.\n <\/p>\n \n In his effort to diversify Nvidia\u2019s business, Huang also rolled out new AI models for autonomous driving and robotics \u2013 deepening his push for the company to become a major player in these fields.\n <\/p>\n