Nvidia Tops $5T, Expands Global AI Partnerships

Nvidia became the first company to surpass a $5 trillion market valuation as Jensen Huang said the firm has secured more than $500 billion in AI chip orders through the end of 2026. At its GTC and related events, Nvidia announced broad dealmaking including auto and robotaxi partnerships (Uber, Stellantis/Foxconn, Lucid, Mercedes‑Benz), collaborations with Nokia and Eli Lilly, and a U.S. Department of Energy plan to build seven supercomputers — one planned to use 10,000 Blackwell GPUs. The company agreed to supply roughly 260,000 Blackwell GPUs to South Korea and said its Rubin platform is on track for mass production in the second half of 2026 with Samsung and SK hynix as key partners. The U.S. Commerce Department cleared exports of about 500,000 Nvidia chips to the UAE, and major tech firms are sharply ramping AI capital expenditures (reported at roughly $380 billion this year), driving expanded U.S. production and supply strains such as tight HBM memory availability. Nvidia is also moving downstream into AI software and startups while navigating lost market share in China amid export controls and geopolitical tensions. Observers warn the rapid AI spending could produce overinvestment or a bubble and raise concerns about concentration, social impact and potential job disruption despite broad enthusiasm.