Nvidia reaches $5.7 trillion market cap: What record buyback means for NVDA shareholders

Nvidia reached a market capitalization of $5.7 trillion on October 2, 2026, surpassing all other publicly listed companies worldwide. The chipmaker's stock closed at around $235.50 after hitting an all-time high of $237.88 intraday. This exceeded Nvidia's previous record from May 2026.

The share price increase came just days after announcing the largest share repurchase program in the company's history. On September 28, 2026, the board of directors approved an additional buyback authorization of $150 billion. Combined with existing programs, Nvidia now has a total volume of $235 billion for share repurchases through fiscal year 2028, which ends in January 2028.

From gaming chipmaker to world's most valuable company

The development of market capitalization illustrates rapid growth: In August 2023, Nvidia was valued at $1.18 trillion. In June 2024, the company surpassed Apple with a valuation of $3 trillion, and in October 2025, Nvidia became the first company to break the $5 trillion mark. Currently, the chipmaker is approximately $300 billion away from reaching its first $6 trillion valuation in company history.

Since the start of 2026, Nvidia stock has gained approximately 25 percent. From the low point on March 30, 2026, at $165.17, the gain exceeds 40 percent. Nvidia's market capitalization now exceeds the entire capitalization of the cryptocurrency market, which is currently just over $3 trillion.

$150 billion buyback: The details

The repurchase program approved on September 28, 2026, for $150 billion is the largest single buyback authorization in company history. It follows an increase of $80 billion that Nvidia announced approximately four months earlier (around June 2026). CEO Jensen Huang justified the decision with confidence in the long-term perspective: "NVIDIA's growth is being driven by a once-in-a-generation platform shift to AI and accelerated computing. Our cash generation gives us the capacity to invest in the technologies that advance this transformation and return capital to shareholders."

Analysts expect Nvidia to spend more than $40 billion annually through fiscal year 2028 on repurchases. With 24.1 billion outstanding shares and a stock price of around $230, the total volume of $235 billion would represent approximately 4 percent of the company.

Expected impact on earnings per share

According to analyst estimates, the complete repurchase volume of $235 billion could reduce the number of outstanding shares by approximately 4.2 percent. This would increase earnings per share by approximately 1.6 percent by 2028. A share repurchase—also called a share buyback—means that a company buys back its own shares from the market and thus reduces the number of outstanding securities. With earnings remaining constant, this mathematically increases the earnings per remaining share.

AI boom drives revenue to record levels

In the quarter ending July 26, 2026, Nvidia reported revenue of $96.2 billion—a 106 percent year-over-year increase. The data center business, in which Nvidia supplies GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) for operating AI systems, contributed $89 billion. The company's chips were originally developed for video games but have become the standard for training and operating artificial intelligence.

CEO Huang summarized the business model with the formula "Now, compute is revenue": the computing power provided by Nvidia chips directly corresponds to customers' AI budgets. Major customers deploy the hardware on an enormous scale: Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to deploy approximately one million Nvidia chips by 2027. The xAI data centers, which also supply Anthropic, currently operate half a million chips and plan to triple capacity.

On September 23, 2026, Supermicro announced it had begun shipping server racks based on Nvidia's latest Vera Rubin platform. Each rack contains 72 Rubin GPUs.

Valuation in market comparison

Nvidia's price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) based on estimates for the coming twelve months is 24. The chipmaker thus trades only moderately above the valuation of the S&P 500, whose P/E ratio is 20. For one of the fastest-growing companies in the US, this relative valuation is comparatively low. Analysts suspect that this valuation relationship may have influenced CEO Huang's decision on the record buyback—according to them, company management sees an opportunity to repurchase shares at what it considers attractive prices.

Macroeconomic tailwind from weak labor market data

The stock price increase on October 2, 2026, coincided with a weak US labor market report for September. The US economy created only 29,000 new jobs, while economists had expected around 90,000. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent. These figures dampened market expectations for further interest rate increases by the US Federal Reserve, which supported stock prices. The NASDAQ Composite gained 1.19 percent on October 2, and the S&P 500 gained 0.73 percent.

The interplay of the buyback decision from September 28 and moderate inflationary pressure provided Nvidia with additional momentum. For shareholders, the repurchase program offers a dual perspective: The reduction of outstanding shares mathematically increases earnings per share, while the large volume signals management's confidence in future development.