It’s difficult to think of any single company that had a bigger impact on Wall Street and the AI trade in 2025 than Nvidia (NVDA).
Investors scrutinized CEO Jensen Huang’s every move, whether that was his meetings with President Trump or a night out with the heads of Samsung and Hyundai for fried chicken and beer.
Nvidia’s revenue surged in 2025, bringing in $187.1 billion, and its market capitalization continued to climb, briefly eclipsing the $5 trillion mark before settling back in the $4 trillion range.
There were plenty of major highs and deep lows throughout the year, but these 15 were among the biggest moments of Nvidia’s 2025.
Jan. 6: CES 2025
Nvidia rang the opening keynote of CES 2025 with the launch of its next‑generation GPUs and a series of product announcements.
Jan. 27: The DeepSeek moment
Nvidia had an early 2025 dip when the price of its Blackwell‑based chips fell for the first time in a long streak of growth, following a market‑wide slide that pushed the price of its H200 chips down 50 % overnight.
Despite the initial downturn, Nvidia maintained a steady focus on AI growth, noting that its own GPUs were “the only chip that can run all AI models.”
Markets eventually settled, though growth continued to be tied to Nvidia’s aggressive push into a sovereign AI strategy.
March 18: Nvidia reveals Blackwell Ultra chips at GTC
Nvidia’s annual GTC event highlighted a series of product announcements, and but this year’s GTC was far different.
During his speech at GTC, Huang declared that his team had built a unified GPU architecture that supports all AI models.
The CEO said that his GPUs were “a generation ahead of competitors’ GPUs” and that the H200 is two generations behind Nvidia’s current Blackwell Ultra processors.
April 2: ‘Liberation Day’
Trump’s decision to greenlight the export of all Nvidia GPUs to China sparked the longest run of his career. The export of the H200 in 2025 was a long‑awaited achievement.
Nvidia was not immune to the backlash; the company has become a negotiating chip for the two countries, just as Apple was before, and could see its chips banned again.
July 9: Nvidia hits $4 trillion
Despite taking a hit in a dip, Nvidia shipped over 100 % of the Blackwell Ultra chips in 2025, and its latest strategy was a massive upgrade that helped it maintain liquidity: pass the $4 trillion mark.
Nvidia topped $1 trillion in 2023, a milestone that had not been reached before 2016.
July 14: Nvidia can sell H20 in China again
In July, the company received authorization to ship the equivalent of more than 60 000 Blackwell chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as it continued to vie for the opportunity to sell its processors to a wider array of countries.
Despite the potential revenue cuts, the company remained focused on a strategic shift across China and the Middle East.
Aug. 11: Nvidia to pay 15% cut on China sales
Although the White House had authorized the export, the company opted to use its AI capabilities to push toward global partnerships.
Despite the potential revenue loss, the company emphasized that its processors had a future in the world of sovereign AI.
Sept. 22: Nvidia says it will invest $100 billion in OpenAI
In September, the company announced that new OpenAI partnerships would allow it to invest $100 billion to accelerate the pace of AI innovation.
Nvidia’s deals to partner with Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL) have continued to be a focal point in AI hardware, as it offers “several benefits” to companies that own data centers.
OpenAI’s strategy has become a key feature of an ambitious expansion of corporate data centers, but the move has also led to the company’s continued competition with its own customers as it pushes sovereign AI worldwide.
Oct. 17: Nvidia’s first Blackwell chip built in US
The Trump administration has announced that the Blackwell Ultra processor will be the first Nvidia processor built, and the company confirmed that it can be used in the United Arab Emirates.
Oct. 29: Nvidia hits $5 trillion
The company’s market share grew dramatically in the United Arab Emirates and the USA, and the data centers it sold were a major growth point in the industry.
The exuberance came from a huge surge in demand for Nvidia GPUs at the time, with the company taking a massive stake in the industry.
The hope was that continued demand for the H200 would improve the company’s bottom line.
Oct. 30: Viral fried chicken photo
Huang’s star exploded throughout 2025, so much so that in October, reporters and onlookers swarmed a South Korean fried chicken restaurant to catch a glimpse of him dining with the heads of Samsung and Hyundai. An image of the trio subsequently went viral.
Nov. 19: Nvidia to ship chips to the Middle East
Nvidia received authorization to ship the equivalent of more than 60 000 Blackwell chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in November as the company continued to vie for the opportunity to sell its processors to a wider array of countries.
The company has pushed the concept of sovereign AI throughout 2025, saying that it allows countries around the world to get access to their own AI data centers without having to rely on other nations.
But China hawks said the move could give U.S. adversaries access to Nvidia chips, due to that country’s close relationship with the UAE.
Nov. 25: Nvidia’s Google tweet
Nvidia has faced threats from its own customers, including Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN), building their own chips to power their AI platforms, but in November, a report that Google could provide Meta (META) with its own tensor processing units (TPUs) for the social media giant’s data centers seemed to spook Nvidia.
The company sent out a viral tweet in response to the story, congratulating Google on its chips’ performance, but pointed out that its own GPUs were a generation ahead of Google’s and noted that it’s the only chip that can run all AI models.
Dec. 9.: Nvidia H200 approved for China
After a year of discussion, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he was greenlighting the sale of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China. The H200 is two generations behind Nvidia’s current Blackwell Ultra processors.
Trump said that Xi responded positively to the deal, which, if fully approved, could provide a boost to Nvidia’s bottom line.
Still, there’s no guarantee that the arrangement won’t fall apart. Nvidia has become a negotiating chip for the two countries, just as Apple was before, and could see its chips banned again.