Even as Trump has announced new tariff actions in recent days, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have lingered near records.

“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 there was also potential upside in Trump’s trade policy.

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

Bullish on 2026

Nvidia’s latest surge to US$4t marks a new threshold in a fairly consistent rise over the past two years as AI enthusiasm has built.

In 2025 so far, the company’s shares have risen 20%, whereas the Nasdaq has gained 6%.

The Taiwan-born Huang has wowed investors with a series of advances, including its core product: graphics processing units (GPUs), which are foundational to many of the generative AI programmes pursued throughout the technology sector, with applications in autonomous driving, robotics and other cutting-edge domains.

The company has also unveiled new advances in recent months, highlighting its Blackwell system, which Huang said in March will soon enable virtually all productions to be “created and brought to life long before it is realised physically”.

However, Nvidia’s winning streak was challenged early in 2025 following revelations about the Chinese DeepSeek venture, which prompted worries that AI investment growth would slow. The company lost some US$600b in market valuation during this period.

Nvidia’s Huang has welcomed DeepSeek as a growing presence in technology, while arguing against US export constraints.

In the most recent quarter, Nvidia reported earnings of nearly US$19b despite a US$4.5b hit from US export controls designed to limit sales of cutting-edge technology to China.

The first-quarter earnings period also revealed that momentum for AI remained strong throughout the tech industry. Many of the biggest technology companies – Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta – are racing each other in the multi-billion-dollar race to win the AI race.

A recent UBS survey of technology executives showed Nvidia widening its lead over rivals.

Zino said Nvidia’s latest surge reflected a fuller understanding of DeepSeek, which has acted as a stimulant to investment for complex reasoning models rather than a threat to Nvidia’s business.

Nvidia is at the forefront of “AI agents”, the current focus in generative AI in which machines are able to reason and infer more than in the past, he said.

“Overall the demand landscape has improved for 2026 for these more complex reasoning models,” Zino said.

– Agence France-Presse