The market value of chip manufacturer Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has surged past $3 tn, which lifts the company ahead of Apple (NASDAQ:MSFT). The share price rose over 5% on Wednesday, to more than $1,224.

This makes the company the second most valuable publicly listed company in the world, just behind Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Nvidia’s increase began last year as investors bet that the company would be a major player in artificial intelligence (AI).

In February the company was valued at $2 tn. It kicked off a spate of share purchases last month by announcing plans for a stock split which will increase the number of shares by a factor of 10, reducing the value of an individual share and making the shares more affordable to small-time investors.

The split will take place tomorrow (Friday) which is expected to generate even more demand for Nvidia shares.