It's hard to imagine any company impacting Wall Street and the AI industry in 2025 more than NVIDIA (NVDA.US). Investors closely followed every move by CEO Jensen Huang—from his meeting with former U.S. President Donald Trump to late-night fried chicken and beer sessions with Samsung and Hyundai executives. NVIDIA's revenue soared to $187.1 billion in 2025, while its market cap briefly surpassed $5 trillion before stabilizing around $4 trillion. Here are the 15 pivotal moments that defined NVIDIA's rollercoaster year.
**January 6: CES 2025 Kickoff** NVIDIA launched the year at CES 2025 with a slate of new products, from ultra-compact AI chips to high-performance gaming GPUs. Huang’s keynote covered robotics, desktop AI systems, and software updates, setting the tone for the year.
**January 27: The "DeepSeek Shock"** DeepSeek’s release of its R-1 model—trained without cutting-edge processors—triggered a $600 billion single-day market cap drop for NVIDIA. Fears of reduced demand for high-performance chips proved exaggerated, as NVIDIA clarified that running AI models (not just training them) still required its hardware. The stock didn’t recover until June.
**March 18: Blackwell Ultra Debut at GTC** NVIDIA’s GTC conference, now a marquee event, saw Huang unveil the Blackwell Ultra GPU and GB300 superchip at San Jose’s SAP Center. He positioned them as essential for the "AI inference era," emphasizing their superiority for models like DeepSeek’s R-1.
**April 2: "Liberation Day" Fallout** Trump’s tariff announcements—dubbed "Liberation Day"—sparked a market plunge. NVIDIA’s stock dropped from $110 to $94.31 by April 4, rebounding to pre-tariff levels by April 9 but struggling until late April.
**April 15: H20 Chip Effectively Banned in China** New U.S. restrictions halted NVIDIA’s H20 GPU sales to China, prompting $8.5 billion in writedowns over two quarters. The chip, designed to comply with prior Biden-era rules, was blocked by Trump citing national security.
**July 9: $4 Trillion Market Cap Milestone** Despite setbacks, NVIDIA’s valuation hit $4 trillion in July, tripling its 2023 milestone. Its AI chip dominance fueled the rise.
**July 14: H20 China Sales Resume** After lobbying Trump, NVIDIA secured approval to restart H20 sales in China, arguing that cutting off tech exports would harm U.S. competitiveness.
**August 11: 15% U.S. Levy on China Revenue** The U.S. imposed a 15% fee on NVIDIA and AMD’s (AMD.US) China chip sales. Investors shrugged it off—85% of revenue was better than zero.
**September 22: $100 Billion OpenAI Investment** NVIDIA’s pledge to fund OpenAI’s data centers sparked "circular investment" concerns, with critics warning it could inflate AI spending. Similar deals, like with CoreWeave (CRWV.US), fueled bubble debates.
**October 17: First U.S.-Made Blackwell Chip** Aligning with Trump’s onshoring push, NVIDIA celebrated its first domestically produced Blackwell chip (manufactured by TSMC).
**October 29: $5 Trillion Market Cap Peak** NVIDIA briefly topped $5 trillion amid hype over new partnerships (e.g., Uber (UBER.US)) at its D.C. GTC event. Hopes for a U.S.-China chip deal faded.
**October 30: Viral Chicken Dinner with Samsung, Hyundai** Huang’s star power shone as photos of his casual meal with Korean execs went viral.
**November 19: Middle East Export Greenlight** NVIDIA won approval to sell Blackwell-equivalent compute power to Saudi Arabia and UAE, advancing its "sovereign AI" vision.
**November 25: The "Google Tweet"** After reports suggested Google might supply Meta (META.US) with rival TPU chips, NVIDIA tweeted a backhanded congratulations, asserting its GPUs remained a generation ahead and universally compatible.
**December 9: H200 China Approval—With Caveats** Trump’s social media post allowed H200 sales to China, though the two-generation-old chip’s future remains uncertain amid geopolitical tensions.
Throughout 2025, NVIDIA navigated policy whiplash, market euphoria, and existential threats—cementing its status as the year’s defining tech titan.
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