Chip-maker Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable company after its share price hit an all-time high amid surging demand for AI applications
The Californian company’s market cap topped $3.33tn on Tuesday (17 June), taking it above Microsoft largely thanks to its dominance of the market for chips that power generative AI.
Nvidia overtook Apple earlier this month.
The company’s shares are up by more than 215% over the last 12 months and by more than 3,400% over the last year years.
Analyst Wedbush Securities said earlier this week that it expects the next year will see a race to $4tn market cap between Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, Bloomberg reports.
AI, 3D visualization and robotics
Nvidia technologies are used across architecture, engineering, construction and operations worldwide.
Nvidia RTX-powered workstations enhance building and infrastructure design workflows with real-time ray tracing, virtual reality, engineering simulation and AI-enabled applications.
Its RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) software provides desktop-level graphics performance for designers working remotely on complex BIM models.
The Nvidia Omniverse platform overcomes interoperability issues between design software tools while enabling real-time collaboration on photorealistic 3D models.
Ominverse deployed on Nvidia OVX also allows developers to build applications to power physically based, AI-enabled digital twins, giving them the power to design, simulate and optimize assets, products and equipment in real-time before entering production.
In addition, Nvidia professional GPUs help to accelerate reality capture workflows by enabling the visualization of huge point clouds captured through photogrammetry and laser scanning.
Elsewhere, the Nvidia Jetson and Isaac platforms provide end-to-end solutions to develop and deploy AI-powered autonomous machines and edge computing applications across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, smart cities and retail.
‘Accelerating the next wave of AI’
Earlier this week, Nvidia announced Omniverse Cloud Sensor RTX, a set of microservices that will allow developers to test sensor perception and associated AI software at scale in physically accurate, realistic virtual environments before real-world deployment.
This is expected to accelerate the development of fully autonomous machines, including autonomous vehicles, robotic humanoids, industrial manipulators, smart spaces and mobile robots.
“Developing safe and reliable autonomous machines powered by generative physical AI requires training and testing in physically based virtual worlds,” said Rev Lebaredian, vice-president of Omniverse and simulation technology at Nvidia.
“Nvidia Omniverse Cloud Sensor RTX microservices will enable developers to easily build large-scale digital twins of factories, cities and even Earth — helping accelerate the next wave of AI.”
