Nvidia (NVDA) stock rose nearly 1% premarket Wednesday as shares eyed their record closing price of $149.43 in what would be a remarkable turnaround in the first half of the year.

The AI chipmaker’s stock has seen a significant upswing following its first quarter earnings in late May, which featured revenue that beat Wall Street’s expectations and showed the company continuing to thrive despite a new export ban on sales of its chips to one of its largest markets: China.

Shares have jumped more than 9% since Nvidia’s May 28 earnings report, far ahead of the S&P 500’s roughly 3.5% gain in that time frame.

The stock had struggled in the months following its record close in January as President Trump embarked on his trade war and AI competition in China rattled the broader markets and its own shares.

Nvidia shares plunged later in January when a new cheap AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek prompted demand concerns for its AI chips. Then, the stock plummeted again in April as Trump's steep tariff announcements rocked the stock market. Trump enacted a ban on sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China, costing the chipmaker $2.5 billion in lost revenue in the first quarter and a projected $8 billion loss in the second quarter.

At the same time, Nvidia's competition in the Chinese market was heating up from domestic tech giant Huawei. Huawei is reportedly readying a new advanced AI chip competitive with Nvidia's prior-generation H100 chips.

Shares hit their lowest closing price in over a year on April 4, ending the trading session at just over $94.

Before the chipmaker's first quarter earnings report, Nvidia stock was bolstered in May by deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to supply hundreds of thousands of its AI chips to the countries. The stock’s comeback helped it briefly overtake Microsoft (MSFT) as the world’s most valuable company in early June.

Chip stocks also rallied across the board Tuesday in conjunction with Nvidia. Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), and Broadcom (AVGO) all climbed over 3.5%.

The upswing comes as investors pile back into tech stocks. Bank of America analysts said in a note Tuesday that tech inflows hit their highest level last week since June 2024.

On Tuesday, the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) also hit a fresh record close, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) notched its highest levels since February.

Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @laurabratton.bsky.social. Email her at laura.bratton@yahooinc.com.

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