It took thirty years for Nvidia, an American firm whose chips power much of the world’s artificial intelligence, to reach a valuation of $1trn.(英伟达花了三十年才达到1万亿美元估值。) Getting to $2trn(万亿（trillion的缩写）) took only nine more months. It passed the $5trn mark less than two years after that. It is now the world’s most valuable company, worth around $5.4trn. Next year its sales are expected almost to double. Some analysts(分析师) predict it will take in $1trn in annual revenue by 2029.
英伟达是一家美国公司，其芯片驱动着全球大部分人工智能，它花了三十年才达到1万亿美元的估值。达到2万亿美元只用了九个月。此后不到两年，它又突破了5万亿美元大关。如今，它是全球市值最高的公司，市值约5.4万亿美元。预计明年其销售额将几乎翻倍。一些分析师预测，到2029年，其年收入将达到1万亿美元。
It is not just chipmaking that has spurred(刺激，推动) Nvidia’s stunning growth, however. Its boss, Jensen Huang, has also resorted to(诉诸，求助于) financial engineering to boost demand for its wares. In mid-August, for example, Nvidia agreed to provide a backstop(担保，支持) worth up to $105bn for a vast data centre in Ohio that will use lots of its chips. A week earlier it had revealed plans to mobilise(调动，动员) more than $500bn of investment in AI infrastructure with the help of six big Wall Street firms, by guaranteeing the value of the equipment it sells to such projects. It may underwrite(承保，包销) as much as a quarter of the cost of some investments. In July Nvidia helped some customers finance big data centres in another way, by promising to top up(补足，充值) their income if it misses set targets.
然而，推动英伟达惊人增长的不仅仅是芯片制造。其首席执行官黄仁勋还借助金融工程来刺激对其产品的需求。例如，8月中旬，英伟达同意为俄亥俄州一个将使用大量其芯片的大型数据中心提供高达1050亿美元的担保。一周前，它公布了计划，在六家华尔街大型公司的帮助下，通过保证其出售给此类项目的设备价值，调动超过5000亿美元的投资用于人工智能基础设施。它可能为某些投资承保高达四分之一的成本。7月，英伟达以另一种方式帮助一些客户为大型数据中心融资，承诺如果未能达到设定目标，将补足他们的收入。
Companies often lend to their customers: think of the financing arms(金融部门，融资部门) of carmakers, for example. Mr Huang argues that Nvidia is simply helping to unlock investment(释放投资，开启投资) for perfectly viable(可行的，能存活的) projects that might otherwise struggle to borrow enough at the right price. But to critics, these deals carry more than a whiff of(一丝，一点气息) the dotcom boom(互联网泡沫（1990年代末）) of the late 1990s, when telecom-equipment-makers such as Cisco and Lucent lent billions of dollars to telecoms providers that bought their gear(设备，装备). When demand for the telecom firms’ services fell short(不足，未达到), some of them collapsed(崩溃，倒闭), landing Cisco and Lucent with big losses.
公司经常向客户放贷：例如，汽车制造商的金融部门。黄仁勋辩称，英伟达只是在帮助释放对完全可行项目的投资，否则这些项目可能难以以合适的价格借到足够的资金。但在批评者看来，这些交易带有上世纪90年代末互联网泡沫的气息，当时思科和朗讯等电信设备制造商向购买其设备的电信运营商贷出了数十亿美元。当对电信公司服务的需求不足时，其中一些公司倒闭，使思科和朗讯蒙受巨大损失。
Lender of vast resort
庞大的最后贷款人
Qualitative easing
量化宽松（此处双关）
Wayward guidance
任性的指引