(Reuters) – Nvidia shares rose 3% before the bell on Thursday, set to extend the semiconductor company’s lead as the world’s most valuable company, after partners Dell and Super Micro Computer received server orders for Elon’s AI startup Musk.
Nvidia, whose market capitalization surpassed Microsoft’s on Tuesday, would add more than $92 billion to its market value of $3.34 trillion to $139.35, compared with Microsoft’s $3.32 trillion.
Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer rose 3.8% and 4.8%, respectively.
The companies make servers equipped with Nvidia chips, allowing them to respond to the rising demand for processors that power almost all AI applications.
Musk said on his social media platform X on Wednesday that Dell and Super Micro are supplying server racks for xAI’s supercomputer, which will be used to expand the capabilities of his AI tool, Grok.
He said earlier this year that training the Grok 2 model would require about 20,000 Nvidia H100 graphics processing units and that the Grok 3 model and above would require 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips.
“While Microsoft both spends and makes money on AI, Nvidia only makes money and lots of money and profits on AI. That’s why you can’t spell Nvidia without AI,” said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management.
Nvidia’s stock price has nearly tripled so far this year, driving gains in the broader market. Super Micro’s shares have more than tripled in value over the same period, while Dell’s shares have risen almost 95%.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index has risen nearly 34% since its most recent low in April, closing at an all-time high on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Medha Singh; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
