Nvidia Overtakes Apple to Become World's Largest Company

Nvidia stock was rising early Monday, pushing its market capitalization past Apple's to make the chip maker the world's largest company.

Nvidia shares were up 1.5% at $137.47 in early trading. The stock rose 2% on Friday.

That gave Nvidia a market cap of $3.37 trillion, just ahead of Apple's $3.36 trillion, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Continued high spending from big technology companies and the chip maker's inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index look to be boosting sentiment around Nvidia.

Nvidia is replacing Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index this week. S&P Dow Jones Indices, which manages the 30-stock benchmark, announced the change last week and said it was to ensure a more representative exposure to the semiconductors industry.

The inclusion is unlikely to drive much more buying of Nvidia stock as few funds track the Dow as opposed to the more broad-based S&P 500. However, it is further acknowledgment of the company's role as the leading U.S. chip stock.

Intel shares were down 2.9% in morning trading. Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was off 0.6% and Broadcom rose 1.7%.

A more fundamental driver for Nvidia stock is likely to be continued investment by large technology companies in artificial-intelligence infrastructure, including the company's Blackwell processors.

"We have further raised our big tech capex forecasts following the quarterly results last week. We now expect their combined spending to grow 50% this year to $222 billion, and another 20% to $267 billion in 2025," wrote Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, in a research note.