Quick overview

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Nvidia’s shares closed at a record on Friday for the first time since October, as investors poured into the AI chip trade ahead of next week’s earnings from tech’s hyperscalers, pushing the company’s market cap over $5 trillion.

The stock closed at $208.27, up 4.3 percent.  NVIDIA has grown more than 14 times since the end of 2022 due to the skyrocketing demand for AI models and services.

Model developers OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, depend on Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Chipmaker Intel, which has largely stayed out of the AI market until recently, reported better-than-expected earnings late Thursday, spurring Friday’s rally.  Intel’s stock saw its best performance since 1987 with a 24% increase,

Qualcomm, a manufacturer of chips for mobile devices, increased 11%, while Advanced Micro Devices, a rival of Nvidia and Intel, increased 14%.  investors had been reducing their holdings of large-cap technology stocks because of the Iran War and rising oil prices,

However, technology has recently gained popularity, and there is no indication that the demand for AI infrastructure will decline. With a 15% increase in April, the Nasdaq is on track to have its best month since April 2020. Alphabet, a significant Nvidia client, has revealed new chips that will compete with Nvidia’s products when they become available to cloud users later this year. NVIDIA does face growing competition in AI.