Nvidia achieves $5 trillion market value

Nvidia has officially become the first-ever company to surpass $5 trillion in market value. The company’s inflated market value was pushed higher by the increasing demand for AI, which requires a steady increase in demand for GPU hardware, which Nvidia supplies. Nvidia surpassed $4 trillion in market value only a couple of months ago, with the gaming segment having hit record revenue in the second quarter of 2026. 

Memory makers are prioritizing HBM and server DRAM, leaving less memory for PCs and smartphones, tightening the supply and pushing up prices for retail value. Nvidia recently lined up three major deals, investing up to $2 billion into xAI as a part of a $20 billion agreement for Nvidia’s own AI GPUs, a $5 billion investment in Intel to align NVLink-connected Intel x86 CPUs with Nvidia’s platform, and a plan to invest $100 billion in Open AI while deploying at least 10 GW of AI accelerators, with the first gigawatt expected in H2 of 2026. 

These deals push manufacturing capacity toward AI and reinforce the ongoing DRAM supercycle, which analysts predict to continue at least until 2027. Memory makers hike DRAM prices, which are already pressuring consumer RAM prices. Median DDR5 RAM prices in online retail rose about 15% in the first 10 days of October and are now up 25 to 35% month to date, with more popular kits climbing as much as 50% in less than a month.

Xiaomi says surging memory costs are already pushing up smartphone prices. Micron warns there will be no relief in 2026 as memory supply may continue to trail demand. Adata reports AI data centers are outbidding the PC market, which thins DRAM and NAND inventories and, in turn, raises the risk of RAM and SSD shortages.