Nvidia passed Apple on Tuesday to take first place as the world's largest company with a market capitalization of $3.43 trillion to Apple's $3.38 trillion.

IN time of writingNvidia had a market cap of $3.584 trillion, higher than Apple's $3.389 trillion and Microsoft's $3.102 trillion. Apple and Microsoft are currently in second and third place.

According to BloombergNvidia's market cap rising above Apple's shows that AI has become “dominant” on Wall Street. The move also shows that investors expect the AI ​​boom to continue. Nvidia counts the biggest tech companies as its customers, including Meta, Microsoft and Google.

Related: '100% Nvidia's fault': CEO Jensen Huang says company's AI chip with 'insane' demand had crucial design flaw

It is the second time this year that Nvidia has become the most valuable company in the world. The first was on June 18 when Nvidia's market cap hit $3.34 trillion — though within a weekthe AI ​​chip maker dropped to third place, behind Microsoft and Apple.

Why did Nvidia almost go out of business?

The milestone of this market peak represents the long way Nvidia has come since its early days.

Nvidia was founded in 1993and, in 1996 it was on the verge of going out of business. The company's CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang said there was a 50-50 chance the business would survive the period and lay off half its staff.

The turning point, and the moment of Nvidia's continued survival, was the Riva 128 graphics chip that the company released in April 1997. The chip put Nvidia “back on the map”, generating revenue for the company that they returned in R&D, which helped “establish Nvidia as a leader in computer graphics,” according to IEEE Computer Society.

^{Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images}

Although Nvidia ultimately endured, Huang never forgot the tumultuous period—and he never let his employees forget it.

He has started many presentations with the words“Our company is thirty days out of business.”

Nvidia the shares are up over 200% year-to-date and over 2700% in the last five years.

Related: 'Everybody wants to be first': Nvidia CEO says demand for its Blackwell AI chip is 'insane'