Nvidia Is the World's Largest Company. Is It the Most Important?

Being the largest and being the most important company aren't necessarily the same thing. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the largest company by a fairly wide margin -- at the time of this writing, it has about a $500 billion lead over second-place Alphabet -- but does that mean it's also the most important?

Let's take a look to see how important Nvidia is, and if the world could survive without it.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Nvidia has several rising competitors

Nvidia makes the most popular computing chips for artificial intelligence (AI) right now: graphics processing units (GPUs). These devices can process multiple calculations in parallel, making them ideal for tasks that require intense computing power, like AI. However, it's not the only company that makes them. AMD is also an avid GPU maker, and even though its market share is far smaller than Nvidia's, it's still a potent competitor.

Additionally, there are other computing chips starting to rise in popularity. One is made by Alphabet and Broadcom, the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). This chip, designed in collaboration with the two companies, is a formidable competitor to Nvidia's GPU, and multiple firms outside of Alphabet are now starting to buy it from Alphabet to deploy in addition to Nvidia GPUs.

So, if someone snapped their fingers and made Nvidia disappear, I think the world could figure out something to replace it. But, there's another consideration.

Being the most important company doesn't always mean it's irreplaceable. Nvidia is incredibly important to other things, like investment indexes. Nvidia is a major component of indexes like the S&P 500 -- it makes up about 7.5% of the total index. So, if Nvidia were to cease to exist, the S&P 500 index would be that much smaller the next day. That makes it very important to the index, and Nvidia's continued success is key to future gains.

During its last quarter, Nvidia's revenue rose at an 85% pace. That's incredible, and it's one of the reasons why it is the world's largest company. But if Nvidia's growth starts to meaningfully decline, the stock could sell off and drag the whole market with it.

That makes Nvidia incredibly important to the success of investment portfolios around the world, so I'd consider Nvidia an important business from that standpoint.

Nvidia's success is critical to every investor, whether they realize it or not. Keeping a tab on Nvidia's results is a good move for every investor, as it has a greater effect on the success of everything than most realize.

Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Broadcom, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Broadcom, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.