Nvidia shares head for record close, Wall Street shrugs off China

Nvidia shares rose nearly 3% on Wednesday and headed for a record close for the first time since January, as investors gain confidence that the company’s leadership in artificial intelligence won’t be dampened by Chinese export controls.

The stock rose as high as $153.13 during the day, matching its prior intraday high. It’s currently trading at $151.92, which would put it past its closing high of $149.43 on Jan. 6.

Nvidia is now worth $3.7 trillion, making it the largest company in the world by market cap, slightly beating out Microsoft, one of its main customers. Apple is third at about $3 trillion.

While Nvidia remains the clear leader in graphics processing units (GPUs) that are being used to build large language models and run AI workloads, the strength of this year’s rally is surprising given that the company has said it’s locked out of the world’s second-biggest economy.

In April, the Trump administration issued new rules that cut off sales of the company’s H20 AI processor that had been developed to meet prior restrictions. Nvidia said last month that the change instituted by the U.S. government would cost the company $8 billion in sales, and that it had to write off $4.5 billion in inventory. Now, Nvidia isn’t counting on any sales from China.

“The $50 billion China market is effectively closed to U.S. industry,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last month.

And there’s another forthcoming rule that will expand export restrictions on AI chips, Trump administration officials previously said.

Still, in its earnings report in May, Nvidia reported a 69% increase in year-over-year revenue, powered by a 73% surge in its data center business. For the full fiscal year, analysts are expecting 53% revenue growth to almost $200 billion, according to LSEG.

Nvidia is holding its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

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