What just happened? German software giant SAP has overtaken Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk to become Europe's most valuable company. SAP's stock has performed exceptionally well, rising more than 40 percent over the past year. The firm's success is largely driven by its strategic shift toward cloud-based services and increasing focus on AI, both of which have strongly resonated with investors.
What just happened? Nvidia has once again broken the record for the largest one-day decline of market value in US history. After the release of the open-source R1 AI model by Chinese startup DeepSeek, which caused panic within the industry, Team Green's shares dropped 17%, resulting in its market cap falling by almost $600 billion.
If an AI bubble burst is coming, it isn't here yet
The big picture: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple as the world's most valuable company late last month, but this week it solidified that position for the second time in a more definitive way. The GPU maker's meteoric rise and the dethronement of Intel on the Dow Jones index signifies a major shift toward AI in the tech sector. However, uncertainty still surrounds the new technology.
The chipmaker can't seem to catch a break this year
What a downfall: Back in the late 90s, Intel and Microsoft were the first major tech players to join the elite Dow Jones Industrial Average club. It was the heyday of the PC revolution that these two giants had largely ushered in. But the tides have turned over the last couple of decades. While Microsoft has soared to become the world's second-biggest company thanks to its booming cloud and AI businesses, Intel has been struggling.
Listen for the pop: Nvidia has achieved several records recently, thanks to its dominance of the advanced AI hardware market, but this is one it doesn't want: Team Green just saw around $279 billion wiped off its market cap, the largest one-day drop in US history. Other companies in the tech industry also saw their share prices fall following the publication of weak economic data. The turmoil appears to be an indicator that the AI bubble might be starting to burst.
Bottom line: Intel's latest quarterly earnings were nothing short of ugly, prompting restructuring plans. It is quite the change for a company that was once among the 30 best stocks in the world. Analysts are increasingly skeptical about CEO Pat Gelsinger's ability to execute a successful turnaround, especially as Intel struggles to keep pace with AMD and Nvidia.
Nvidia is now worth $1.7 trillion -- make that $1.82 trillion...
Jackpot baby! Artificial intelligence has proven incredibly fruitful for Nvidia and its shareholders over the past year, and could even help the chipmaker surpass Amazon in terms of total market capitalization. Closing at over $720 today, that's an increase of more than 20% year over year and nearly 50% since the beginning of 2024.