Nvidia tops Microsoft as the most valuable public company

Nvidia on Tuesday vaulted past Microsoft to become the most valuable publicly listed company in the world, highlighting its place at the forefront of Big Tech.

Nvidia's stock price rose nearly $5, or 3.7%, to $135.77, valuing the AI chip maker at $3.33 trillion, compared with $3.31 trillion for Microsoft and $3.29 trillion for Apple, which boasted the largest market capitalization until being surpassed by Microsoft earlier this year. A year ago, Nvidia's market capitalization had just crossed the $1 trillion threshold. 

The company's stock, which has shot up more than 174% this year, was trading at more than $1,200 earlier this month until Nvidia completed a 10-for-1 stock split on June 7 in order to make the shares more affordable.