Nvidia (NVDA) experienced a surge in its market capitalization in early trading on Thursday, briefly surpassing $950 billion, which set a new record. This made the company more valuable than the combined total of its competitors Broadcom (AVGO), AMD (AMD), Texas Instruments (TXN), Intel (INTC), and Qualcomm (QCOM).

With this accomplishment, it is just under $50 billion shy of achieving the coveted $1 trillion valuation that has only been reached by techAAPL Amazon (AMZN), MicrosoftFT), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) to date. Nvidia's market cap rose nearly $200 billion in a single session after better-than-expected earnings sent its shares up over 20% in after-hours trading. Nvidia shares have increased by an incredible 130% since the beginning of this year, with its market cap doubling in 2023 before the recent surge. This performance far outstrips that of the broader information technology sector, which has only increased by 25% over the same period. Over the past decade, Nvidia has achieved returns of around 8,800%, while Apple, which is often a favorite among investors, had a return of only 1,150%.