The Dow Jones index dropped Thursday ahead of jobless claims and retail sales. Nvidia chipmaker TSMC jumped on earnings.

Nvidia ( NVDA 4.08%) became the first company to reach $4 trillion in market cap on Wednesday -- an incredible feat considering the company was worth a fraction of tech giants Apple and Microsoft just a few years ago.

Nvidia Corporation's $4T valuation is driven by AI growth, global partnerships, and quantum computing. Click to explore why it's not too late to invest in NVDA.

Nvidia briefly reached a market capitalization of $4 trillion on Wednesday, making it the first company in the world to reach the milestone and solidifying its position as one of Wall Street's most-favored stocks.

Nvidia currently has the highest market cap of $3.98 trillion. Founded by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem in 1993, the company first focused on producing multimedia processors and graphics chips. Its graphic processing units (GPUs) improved the look and feel of gaming and transformed video editing.

Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company to top $4 trillion in value on Wednesday after two-year investor frenzy.

Nvidia's stock market value ended the trading session above $4 trillion, solidifying the chipmaker's position as Wall Street's central player in a race to dominate AI technology.

Dow Jones futures fell slightly after hours, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. United AirlinesUAL reported mixed results late Wednesday. NvidiaNVDA and AMD chipmaker Taiwan SemiconductorTSM headline earnings early Thursday with NetflixNFLX due after the close.