Nvidia's Market Value Grew 24% Over the Past Year. Intel's Grew 474%.

Over the past year, Nvidia (NVDA +0.96%) added about 24% to its market value, which now sits near $5.4 trillion as of this writing. Intel (INTC +0.01%) added about 474%, lifting its value to roughly $510 billion. On that measure, it isn’t close.

But market value tracks two things at once: the share price and how many shares exist. These two gains are built differently.

Intel: a higher price and more shares

Intel‘s stock price is up roughly 400% over the past year, from around $20 to about $101 as of this writing. The rest of the market-value gain came from the share count, which grew by about a sixth (from about 4.4 billion shares to more than 5 billion). Much of the new stock was issued to the U.S. government under the company’s CHIPS Act agreement, along with other new investors. And a shareholder who held Intel all year captured the price move, not the headline market-value move.

Of course, the higher price has substance behind it. Intel’s revenue rose 25% year over year last quarter, its fastest growth in nearly 15 years. The run has not been smooth. Shares hit $142.35 at their peak over the past year and now trade about 29% lower.

The earnings, though, haven’t arrived. Intel lost $11.3 billion over the trailing 12 months, and most of that reflects a $12.5 billion non-cash charge tied to shares held for the U.S. government. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $0.42 per share in the second quarter — profitable, but arguably thin for a business now valued above $500 billion.

Nvidia: the earnings

Nvidia‘s 24% market-value gain looks modest next to that. But the chipmaker’s trailing-12-month earnings came to $159.6 billion, more than double the year-earlier figure, on $253 billion of revenue. Trailing revenue rose about 71% as well.

Its market value grew slower than its profits did, which means the stock got cheaper over the stretch — its price-to-earnings ratio now sits near 34.

Intel offers no such multiple. Its trailing earnings are negative, so the $510 billion valuation rests on what the foundry build-out and a supply constrained chip market could deliver in 2027 and beyond.

Nvidia earned about $160 billion over the year and ended the stretch cheaper against its profits than it began it. Intel delivered a return to fast revenue growth, a loss on paper, a sixth more shares outstanding, and a valuation that multiplied almost six-fold on the strength of what comes next.

Nvidia’s gain came with the profits already in hand. Intel’s still depends on them arriving.