Nvidia<\/a> launches became the fourth most valuable U.S. corporation on Monday \u2014 temporarily surpassing Amazon.com Inc. and opening a new chapter in market capitalization as the chipmaker<\/a> was propelled to prominence by the excitement surrounding artificial intelligence<\/a>. \u201cIt seems that Nvidia has gone up every day so far this year,\u201d says Ben Reitzes of Melius Research. At its peak price of $734.96, Nvidia\u2019s market value was $1.82 trillion, compared to the retail master, Amazon.com\u2019s $1.81 trillion and only a few billion short of Alphabet, the company that owns Google.<\/p>\n Nvidia<\/a> was more valuable than Amazon in 2002 \u2014 when each company was worth $6 billion. With shares up 47% year to date and ranking as the most significant gain among S&P 500 components, expectations were high going into the report. Investors will be watching Nvidia\u2019s quarterly results on February 21, the last of the megacap companies to report this earnings season, especially following the company\u2019s better-than-expected holiday quarter sales last month.<\/p>\n In January, Microsoft surpassed Apple to take the top spot as the most valuable business in the world, with Alphabet coming in third.<\/p>\n A year ago, Nvidia\u2019s<\/a> stellar predictions and impressive quarterly results proved that the chip manufacturer was leading the way in providing to tech companies developing so-called generative AI, such as chatbots and image creation. Nvidia\u2019s stock has soared 223% over the last 12 months, making it the highest-performing stock among the so-called \u201cMagnificent Seven\u201d on the company\u2019s strong AI demand forecast. With a 163% increase, Meta Platforms comes in second.<\/p>\n The so-called \u201cMagnificent Seven<\/a>\u201d \u2014 Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla \u2014 have dominated the S&P 500 this year as investors scooped up shares of megacap tech names.<\/p>\n Featured Image Credit: Photo by Stas Knop; Pexels<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/readwrite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Deanna-Ritchie_avatar-125x125.jpg\"){kind=avatar}