Nvidia, which makes graphics chips for Microsoft"s new Xbox game console, saw its shares more than quadruple, making it the year"s best performer in the Standard & Poor"s 500 index.
Nvidia opened the year at $16.50. It quadrupled to close 2001 at about $68--even as shares of dot-coms, chipmakers and telecommunications companies melted. Nvidia"s upswing was fueled by a strong video game market and its recent addition to the prestigious S&P 500.
Previous winners, include Enron (who"s now trade at 60 cents -- a drop of 99 percent), and Qualcomm (it"s stock now trades nearly 75 percent below its 1999 high, adjusted for a stock split, of $185.03).
Widely respected among video game fanatics, Nvidia makes chips that churn data into realistic-looking video in game systems and computers. Its stock has succeeded even as the S&P 500 index dropped 12 percent.