NEW YORK, June 18 Reuters Nvidia has become the worlds most valuable company following a staggering rally in its shares, underlining the outsized role investors expect artificial intelligence to play in the global economy over coming years.

Nvidia shares rose 3.5 on Tuesday, giving it a market value of about 3.34 trillion. That pushed the semiconductor bellwether past Microsoft and Apple, which had been jostling for the top spots in recent days.

The surge in Nvidia39;s market value has been driven by demand for its chips, which are the gold standard in the AI space. The company39;s shares are up more than 170 this year and have risen about 1,100 since their October 2022 low.

Blockbuster earnings and broadening investor enthusiasm over AI are supercharging Nvidia39;s rally. That fervor has been reflected in Nvidias market value, which took only 96 days to go from 2 trillion to 3 trillion.

Microsoft, one of the two other companies to reach those rarefied levels, took 945 days to go from 2 trillion to 3 trillion while Apple took 1,044 days to make the leap, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

Previously, just 11 U.S. companies since 1925 have reached the top spot in market value on a closing basis, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at SP Dow Jones Indices.

Fortunes have diverged for past holders of the top position in recent decades. Microsoft reached No. 1 in the late 1990s but then its shares struggled for years during the early 2000s following…