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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s net worth swelled by about $5 billion Wednesday as Nvidia shares jumped by more than 4% to a new intraday high, after some analysts projected the success of Nvidia’s AI products could help propel the chipmaker’s market valuation to $6 trillion.
An analyst from Loop Capital raised the price target for the company, suggesting Nvidia’s market cap ... More
Nvidia shares increased by 4.4% to around $154.40 as of around 3:10 p.m. EDT, above the stock’s closing record of $149.53 set on Jan. 6 after the stock broke an intraday all-time record high of $153.13 set on Jan. 7.
The value of Huang’s roughly 3% stake in Nvidia, totaling more than 859 million shares, increased by about $5.5 billion as the stock rose.
Nvidia added about $150 billion to its market cap Wednesday, as the company surpassed Microsoft—valued at more than $3.6 trillion—as the world’s largest firm, with a $3.75 trillion valuation.
Ananda Baruah, an analyst for Loop Capital, said in a note Wednesday that Nvidia would be at the “front-end” of the next “Golden Wave” for generative AI as more companies adopt the technology, which Baruah said would feature “stronger-than-anticipated demand.”
Baruah raised his price target for Nvidia’s stock to $250 from $175, surpassing the average $173 forecast among Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet, while claiming Nvidia’s market valuation could peak near $6 trillion.
Huang’s fortune is valued at $134 billion, ranking him as the 10th-wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes’ estimates.
Huang sold 100,000 shares of Nvidia over the last week as part of his plan to sell up to 6 million through the end of the year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. He sold about $700 million worth of Nvidia shares in a similar plan last year.
Nvidia’s shares, up 11% on the year, have risen in recent weeks as fears the company would suffer from export controls appear to have dispelled among investors. Nvidia said in April the company expected to take a $5.5 billion hit to sales after the U.S. imposed restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China. Huang, 62, told investors in May a $50 billion market in China for AI chips was “effectively closed to U.S. industry,” though he noted the “global demand” for Nvidia’s AI infrastructure was “incredibly strong.”