Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday that the company’s advantage in artificial intelligence chips was thanks to a bet it made over 10 years ago, centering on billions of dollars in AI investment and a team of thousands of engineers.

Huang’s comments came during the question-and-answer period of Nvidia’s first shareholder meeting since the company’s stock began to surge, after Wall Street’s heightened interest in the company’s dominant position in the AI chip market.

Since last year’s meeting, the company has been on a historic run: Nvidia’s stock is up 193%, its shares split 10-1, the company passed a $3 trillion valuation and it briefly reached the status of most valuable company in the U.S.

The first question Huang answered Wednesday was about the company’s competition, as traditional chipmakers and startups alike release products intended to challenge Nvidia’s more than 80% market share in AI chips.

Nvidia shares fell more than 1% in trading on Wednesday.

Without naming competitors, Huang laid out the company’s overall strategy to maintain its position, leading with the idea that Nvidia has already “transformed” into a data-center focused company from its previous gaming focus. The company is also looking to create new markets for its AI, such as in industrial robotics, and it aims to partner with every computer maker and cloud provider to do so.

Huang said that its AI chips provide the “lowest total cost of ownership,” suggesting that while other chips may be less expensive, Nvidia’s are more economical considering their performance and cost to run.

Ultimately, Huang said Nvidia had achieved a “virtuous circle,” a term in the technology industry that refers to when a platform has the most users, which allows it to make the improvements it needs to attract even more users.

“The NVIDIA platform is broadly available through every major cloud provider and computer maker, creating a large and attractive install base for developers and customers, which makes our platform more valuable to our customers,” Huang said.

Nvidia shareholders were pleased with the company’s performance, and approved a non-binding vote on executive compensation called “say on pay.” Nvidia executives are paid in a combination of salary and various kinds of restricted stock units.

Huang received a compensation package worth about $34 million during the company’s 2024 fiscal year, a 60% increase since 2023, according to the company’s annual filing.

Amazon shares climbed more than 3% in intraday trading on Wednesday, pushing the company’s market cap past $2 trillion for the first time.

In crossing the milestone, Amazon joins Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft, all of which are worth $2 trillion or more. Investors have piled into tech stocks recently as excitement around generative artificial intelligence has reached a fever pitch. Nvidia, which makes graphics processors for the servers that power large AI models, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries, with its market value soaring from $2 trillion to $3 trillion in just over 3 months.

Shares of Amazon have surged roughly 26% so far this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen about 18% over the same period.

In April, the company reported first-quarter earnings that showed its Amazon Web Services business was continuing to rebound from a recent slowdown caused by businesses who trimmed their cloud spend. Amazon executives also spoke at length about how AWS can benefit from a surge in demand for generative AI services.

Investors have also cheered the company’s recent cost-cutting initiatives, which fueled Amazon’s earnings growth in recent quarters. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been on a multi-year quest to reign in the company’s spending, including widespread layoffs that have affected more than 27,000 Amazon employees.

It took Amazon more than four years to cross the $2 trillion milestone. Its market cap reached $1 trillion in 2020, the second time in its history after hitting the benchmark for the first time in 2018.

Google is testing facial recognition technology for office security “to help prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to our campuses,” according to a description of the program that was viewed by CNBC.

The initial test is taking place at one of Alphabet’s sites in Kirkland, Washington, a Seattle suburb, the document says. Interior security cameras have been collecting facial data and comparing it to images stored from employee badge images, which includes the extended workforce, to help determine if there are unauthorized people on the premises.

Google’s Security and Resilience Services (GSRS) team will use the data to help identify people “who may pose a security risk to Google’s people products, or locations,” the document says.

“There are protocols in place for identifying, reporting, and potentially removing known unauthorized persons to maintain safety and security of our people and spaces,” it says.

At the Kirkland testing site, people entering the building will not be able to opt out of the facial screening. However, the document says the data is “strictly for immediate use and not stored,” and that employees can opt out of having their ID images stored by filling out a form. Google told CNBC that while ID badge photos were part of the test, they won’t be used going forward.

“For many years our security team has been testing and implementing new systems and protections to help keep our people and spaces as safe as possible,” a Google spokesperson said in an email.

Google has experienced at least one notable violent incident in the past. In 2018, a woman opened fire at YouTube’s office in San Bruno, California, injuring three people. The shooter allegedly targeted YouTube because she “hated” the company for blocking her videos.

The Kirkland test lands at a sensitive moment for Google, which is at the center of the artificial intelligence boom and is rapidly adding AI across its portfolio of products and services. Facial recognition technology is particularly controversial because of the privacy concerns around surveillance.

In 2021, Google proposed new security changes, including fences around parts of its headquarters in Mountain View, California, especially as its construction plans included public and retail spaces. More recently, company executives have cited security reasons for cutting off access to employees after a series of layoffs and protests over the past year.

In early 2023, the company announced plans to eliminate about 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, in response to a downturn in the online ad market and a broader economic slowdown. Google has laid off more employees recently, moving some engineering roles to India and Mexico.

In a high-profile incident in April, Google terminated more than 50 employees after a series of protests over labor conditions at the company and against Project Nimbus, Google’s cloud and AI contract with the Israeli government and military. Employees staged a sit-in protest at offices in New York and Sunnyvale offices.

Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security, told staffers at an all-hands meeting last month that “extensive use of all of our video camera footage” helped to identify employees that the company said were disruptive during the protests and who made their colleagues feel threatened and unsafe, according to audio of the meeting obtained by CNBC.

Facial recognition technology became a big topic for lawmakers in 2020, following pressure from civil rights advocates and national protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Amazon, Microsoft and IBM imposed restrictions on the sale of their technology to police.

The following year, Amazon was questioned by U.S. senators about its use of employee surveillance after the company deployed AI-equipped cameras in delivery vans. In April, warehouse workers sued Amazon alleging the company illegally collected biometric data that included face scans. And late last year, the Federal Trade Commission proposed barring Rite Aid from using facial recognition software in its drugstores for five years to settle allegations it improperly used the technology to identify shoplifters.

Security is a costly endeavor for Google not just on campuses but all the way up to the top ranks of the company. In 2023, CEO Sundar Pichai’s personal security cost the company $6.8 million, up from $5.9 million a year earlier, according to regulatory filings.

WATCH: Google, Microsoft announce layoffs