Apple, once the world's most valuable company, has been surpassed by Nvidia, a milestone achieved due to a historic surge in Nvidia’s stock value. As of Friday, Nvidia briefly held a market valuation of $3.53 trillion, slightly ahead of Apple's $3.52 trillion, as reported by Reuters based on LSEG data. This isn’t the first time Nvidia reached this peak; in June, it briefly held the top position before being overtaken again by tech giants Apple and Microsoft.

The demand for Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI chips, crucial for training advanced models like ChatGPT-4, has fueled the tech giant’s recent rise. Nvidia’s stock has reportedly surged by 18% in October alone, partly spurred by OpenAI’s recent $6.6 billion funding round. OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, uses Nvidia’s high-powered chips to build and refine foundational AI models.

According to Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, Nvidia's products have seen heightened demand as more businesses integrate artificial intelligence into their daily operations. "More companies are now embracing artificial intelligence in their everyday tasks, and demand remains strong for Nvidia chips," Mould said to Reuters.

Nvidia's growth was also bolstered by a forecast-breaking 54% quarterly profit jump from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, which supplies chips widely used in AI applications.