Nvidia made history on Wednesday as it became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market capitalization, an achievement fueled by an impressive rally, cementing its place at the center of the global artificial intelligence boom.

This milestone underscores the company’s rapid transformation from a niche graphics processor manufacturer to a foundation of the global AI industry. It also elevates CEO Jensen Huang to an iconic figure in Silicon Valley and transforms the company’s advanced chips into a focal point of the U.S.-China tech debate.

Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, Nvidia’s share price has twelvefold as the frenzy around artificial intelligence has pushed the S&P 500 index to historic highs, sparking debates about whether inflated valuations of the technology could lead to the creation of a new bubble.

The new record, which came just three months after the $4 trillion barrier was broken, marks a valuation greater than the total value of the cryptocurrency market and nearly half the value of Europe’s Stoxx 600.

“In the longer term, we expect that tech giants will seek to develop alternative or internal solutions to reduce their dependence on Nvidia in the AI space. However, these efforts will, at best, succeed in limiting, but not displacing, Nvidia’s dominance,” commented Brian Colello, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.