NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Nvidia became the first company to touch $4 trillion in market value on Wednesday, a new milestone in Wall Street’s bet that artificial intelligence will transform the economy.

Shortly after the stock market opened, Nvidia vaulted as high as $164.42, giving it a valuation above $4 trillion. The stock subsequently edged lower, ending just under the record threshold.

“The market has an incredible certainty that AI is the future,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “Nvidia is certainly the company most positioned to benefit from that gold rush.”

Nvidia, led by electrical engineer Jensen Huang, now has a market value greater than the GDP of France, Britain or India, a testament to investor confidence that AI will spur a new era of robotics and automation.

The California chip company’s latest surge is helping drive a recovery in the broader stock market, as Nvidia itself outperforms major indices.

Part of this is due to relief that President Donald Trump has walked back his most draconian tariffs, which pummeled global markets in early April.

Even as Trump announced new tariff actions in recent days, United States (US) stocks have stayed at lofty levels, with the tech-centered Nasdaq ending at a fresh record on Wednesday.

“You’ve seen the markets walk us back from a worst-case scenario in terms of tariffs,” said Angelo Zino, technology analyst at CFRA Research.

While Nvidia still faces US export controls to China as well as broader tariff uncertainty, the company’s deal to build AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia during a Trump state visit in May showed a potential upside in the US president’s trade policy.

“We’ve seen the administration using Nvidia chips as a bargaining chip,” Zino said.

But the speedy growth of AI will also be a source of disruption.

Executives at Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon are among those who have begun to say the “quiet part out loud,” according to a Wall Street Journal report recounting recent public acknowledgment of white-collar job loss due to AI.

Shares of Nvidia closed the day at $162.88, up 1.8 per cent, finishing at just under $4 trillion in market value.