Stock markets opened lower on Friday morning in the United States. Known for its smartphones Apple bypassed at the same time by the processor designer Nvidia’s as the world’s most valuable company, the news agency Bloomberg writes.
Apple’s stock was up 0.3 percent at $334.12 per share. The market value was 4.9 trillion dollars, or about 4,911 billion dollars, according to Yahoo Finance, which provides market data.
Nvidia’s stock was down 4.4 percent at $198.35 per share. The market value was 4.8 trillion dollars, or about 4,837 billion dollars.
The sums are enormous. For example, a financial group on the Helsinki Stock Exchange Nordic the market value is 58 billion euros. Network manufacturer Nokia was previously the most valuable company on the stock exchange, but the recent price drop has taken the market value to 53 billion euros.
In the case of Nokia, investors were excited about the company’s opportunities in projects linked to artificial intelligence, which raised the company’s earnings-based valuation even higher than Nvidia’s.
Shares in the semiconductor industry, which designs and manufactures processors and other electronic components, have taken a hit in recent days.
The profitability of investments in semiconductor companies, the valuation levels of shares and other concerns must have come to the minds of investors again. Products in the industry are often made of semiconductors such as silicon.
The stock market is falling
The S&P 500, which tracks the stock price of five hundred large US companies, opened 1.2 percent lower compared to yesterday’s closing reading. At the sector level, shares in the semiconductor industry fell the most.
The Nasdaq, which focuses on companies in the technology sector, was down 1.8 percent. The Dow Jones, which follows the thirty major companies, was down 1.0 percent.
The semiconductor industry took a hit already yesterday in the United States. For example Intel decreased by 5.8 percent, Micron Technology 5.7 percent, AMD 5.3 percent and Broadcom 5.0 percent.
The development spread to Asia, where, for example, a Japanese investor in the semiconductor industry Softbank fell by nine percent, and a manufacturer of accessories for the semiconductor industry Tokyo Electron dropped by eight percent.
A manufacturer of physical processors TSMC fell 7.3 percent on Friday. TSMC manufactures, for example, processors designed by Nvidia, which companies and organizations can access through data centers.
Processors designed by Nvidia have played a central role in the development of artificial intelligence.