Is the AI bubble about to burst?

The half-a-trillion-dollar fall in chip-maker Nvidia’s shares – days after it briefly surpassed Microsoft and Apple as the world’s most profitable company – could prove to be more than a market correction, says James Moore

Robots powered by Nvidia’s AI chip technology, at a keynote address at an artificial intelligence conference in San Jose, California (Getty Images)

The numbers behind the end of AI kingpin Nvidia’s brief reign as the world’s biggest company are staggering.

The US chip manufacturer has had more than $550bn (£433bn) wiped from its value since the sellers got to work and blew the top off its Thursday peak. That’s a more than half-trillion-dollar dive, and the biggest three-day value loss for any company in history.

To put that in context, Britain’s top three most valuable companies – drugs giant AstraZeneca, oil major Shell and international banking group HSBC – are worth a combined £500bn ($633bn), just a little bit more than has been shaved from Nvidia’s market value over a couple of days.