Every company listed on a stock exchange is divided into a number of units called shares. If you own one share of Nvidia, you own a small slice of Nvidia — the factories, the software, the brand, everything. The price you see quoted is the price of one of those slices.
Market cap is just the logical next step: multiply the share price by the total number of shares in existence and you get the full price tag of the company. Nvidia trading at ~$200 with roughly 25 billion shares outstanding puts its market cap near $5 trillion.
One thing worth knowing: that $5 trillion figure is theoretical. If someone actually tried to buy every share, the price would move against them the whole way — sellers would demand more the moment they sensed strong demand. Market cap tells you what the market thinks the company is worth right now, not what it would cost to actually acquire it.
On Sponda you can see both figures — current price and market cap — for any company, along with a price chart going back years. You can also share any individual metric directly with a link or on social media, which is handy when something catches your eye and you want to show someone.
That’s the foundation. More metrics in the next videos.