Nvidia's AI Surge Powers 25% of S&P 500 Gains in 2024, Makes Co-founder Huang Among Fastest Growing: Report

Nvidia Corp’s NVDA rally disproportionately influences the S&P 500 index, reflecting concerns over the domino effect due to the integrated semiconductor ecosystem.

Nvidia accounted for 25% of the S&P 500’s 17% gain in 2024, Reuters reports.

The chip designer has risen by 166% in the last 12 months as Big Techs, including Microsoft Corp MSFT, Amazon.Com Inc AMZN, and Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL, splurge on their artificial intelligence ambitions.

Also Read: AMD Gains Ground in AI Chip Market, Oracle Exec Confirms Growing Demand: Report

The rising valuation of NvidiaNVIDIA in 2024 has helped boost the wealth of Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of the company that was once created inside a Denny’s restaurant.

Huang has a wealth of $90.5 billion, ranking 18th according to Bloomberg. While Huang hasn’t cracked the top 10 list yet and would currently need to hit a wealth of $130 billion, the Nvidia co-founder is one of the fastest risers among the world’s richest people. Huang’s wealth is up $46.4 billion year-to-date in 2024.

That figure is more than the combined $41.83 billion gained by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Musk, Bezos and Gates currently rank first, second and fifth, respectively, with their current wealth and year-to-date gains.

• Elon Musk: $237 billion, +$7.73 billion year-to-date
• Jeff Bezos: $195 billion, +$17.9 billion year-to-date
• Bill Gates: $157 billion, +$16.2 billion year-to-date

The gain by Huang is one of the largest year-to-date gains, trailing only Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is up $49.9 billion and listed fourth at $178 billion.

It’s not just personal wealth – due to the AI frenzy, Huang expects hyper-scale customers to produce $5 in rental revenue for every $1 spent on Nvidia’s infrastructure. He also reiterated that Blackwell-based products will ship in the fourth fiscal quarter.

This indicates that Nvidia stock losing value would impact the S&P500 and Huang’s wealth. However, Huang had snubbed geopolitical tensions surrounding supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSM, voicing the possibility of switching suppliers. 

Microsoft, Apple Inc AAPL, and Nvidia have a combined weighting of 20% in the S&P 500. Microsoft gained 31%, and Apple has risen 22% in the last 12 months as they remain invested in their AI goals.

Investors can gain exposure to Nvidia and the S&P 500 through SPDR S&P 500 SPY and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF IVV.

Price Action: NVDA stock closed lower by 1.95% to $116.78 on Monday.

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• Taiwan Semiconductor’s Strong August Sales Hint at Big Gains Ahead, AI and iPhone Demand Fuel Optimism

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