Nvidia: the chip giant crosses 5500 billion

1- Nvidia becomes the first company to reach a capitalization of $5.5 trillion

As shown in the table below, Nvidia remains the world leader in terms of market capitalization. Over the last seven sessions, Nvidia shares have increased by around 20%, briefly exceeding 5.5 trillion dollars in capitalization in the middle of the week, before approaching 6 trillion on Thursday, a level never reached by a company. Several factors explain this increase.

The first is geopolitical. Jensen Huang joined President Trump’s delegation in Beijing for talks with Xi Jinping. Separately, Reuters reported that Washington allowed Alibaba, Tencent and about eight other Chinese companies to buy Nvidia’s H200 chips, transforming China from a constrained market into a source of significant option. Wall Street also reinforced this upward movement. Bank of America raised its price target to $320 from $300, citing a $1.7 trillion total addressable market (TAM) for AI data centers by 2030. UBS also raised its target to $275, anticipating first-quarter revenue of $81 billion and forecasts near 91 billion, compared to 79 billion expected by the consensus.

The results of May 20 are now the center of attention. Polymarket estimates a 97% probability of exceeding expectations, with a focus on optimistic outlooks regarding Vera Rubin and hyperscaler investments, estimated between $650 and $725 billion in 2026.

2- Welcome to the K economy!

The chart below compares US stock market capitalization as a percentage of GDP (red line) with the share of total wages in GDP (white line). The main message is a widening gap between the two. On the one hand, wealth linked to financial markets occupies an increasingly important part of the economy. On the other hand, the share of labor income is gradually decreasing. Concretely, this means that the share of GDP which goes to employees is today historically low, while that captured by capital holders has reached historically high levels.

3- American inflation now exceeds wages for the first time in 3 years

Before the start of the US-Iran conflict at the end of February, inflation was 2.4%. It reached 3.8% in just two months, mainly due to the shock to energy prices linked to the war. Average real hourly wages fell by 0.5% in April and now show an annual decline of 0.3% Nominal incomes increase, but purchasing power decreases: Americans earn more dollars but can buy less.

4- American production prices are soaring

The producer price index (PPI) in the United States increased 6.0% year-on-year in April, its highest level since January 2023, well above the consensus of 4.9%. Over one month, prices jumped 1.4%, almost three times more than the 0.5% expected. The Core IPP also increased by 1.0% against 0.3% expected. On an annual basis, the Core PPI reached 5.2%, also well above forecasts. Both indicators are at three-year highs. Excluding food, energy and trade, producer prices recorded their largest annual increase in five years, suggesting a continued transmission to consumer inflation. As a result, the 30-year US Treasury yield reached 5.042%, close to its highest level in 19 years, as markets quickly reassess the likelihood of further rate hikes from the Fed.

5- Germany seems to be heading towards stagflation

Consensus GDP growth forecasts for 2026 have been revised downwards, from over 1% to just 0.66%. At the same time, inflation expectations were raised to more than 2.7%. In this context, markets are now expecting at least two additional rate hikes from the ECB, reflecting concerns linked to a combination of weak growth and persistent inflation.

6- India increases import duties on precious metals

India has raised import duties on gold and silver from 6% to 15%, amid pressure on the rupee and increased imports. Gold imports hit a record high of $71.98 billion in FY26, while silver imports jumped 162%. This measure could reduce foreign exchange outflows by 10 to 15 billion dollars.

However, it could also lead to more smuggling, an increase in the use of recycling and an increase in demand for loans backed by gold. With the rise in financial investments, this policy could encourage households to turn away fromphysical gold for the benefit offinancial assetssignaling a structural transformation in savings behavior.

7- Anthropic surpasses OpenAI in enterprise adoption for the first time

An update to the Ramp AI index shows that Anthropic is now used by 34.4% of businesses, surpassing OpenAI at 32.3%. Anthropic’s adoption increased fourfold over the past year, while OpenAI’s adoption grew just 0.3%, marking a notable shift in enterprise AI preferences.