CHIP-
MAKERS
SEMI STALWART Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2018.Nvidia
22 U.S. (NVDA, $524)Currently the most
valuable U.S. chip-
maker by stock mar-
ket value, Nvidia
keeps surging
thanks to more and
more customers us-
ing its video gaming
graphics processors
for artificial intelli-
gence and machine
learning applica-
tions. The newest
chips from Nvidia
powering its Am-
pere line of gaming
graphics cards have
a staggering 28 bil-
lion transistors each,
while a boosted-up
version for A.I. and
data analysis called
the A100 has 54 bil-
lion. Up next, CEO
Jensen Huang hopes
to expand into more
common processors
via the $40 billion
acquisition of chip
design pioneer ARM.
ASML Holding
31 NETHERLANDS (AS:
ASML, $428)
It’s good to be a vir-
tual monopoly. ASML,
a Dutch semiconduc-
tor specialist, has ef-
fectively cornered
the market for “ex-
treme ultraviolet”
photolithographic
machines, which are
required for ad-
vanced chipmaking.
Silicon stalwarts
such as Intel, Sam-
sung, and TSMC rely
on the company’s
highly expensive,
bus-size circuit-
printers. ASML’s
share price has in-
creased 11-fold over
the past decade.
THE FUTURE 50 • THE LIST 2021