The world's second most valuable company has been the top beneficiary of an AI-driven spending spree by big technology companies over the past two years.

A recent stumble, however, came after the Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled a lower-cost AI model that was seen as a threat to the dominance of U.S. rivals, driving Nvidia down roughly 17% on January 27, equivalent to $593 billion — a record one-day market value loss.