US stocks finished higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 reaching a new record on a day that Nvidia edged ahead of Microsoft to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company.

The chip company, which has enjoyed a monumental ascent over the last 18 months amid enthusiasm over generative AI, closed 3.5 percent higher, giving it a market capitalisation of about US$3.3 trillion, slightly ahead of the tech giants Microsoft and Apple.

"We were kind of waiting for this moment, actually, for quite some time," said Angelo Zino from the financial intelligence firm CFRA.

"The semiconductor industry is now the biggest sub-industry in the S&P 500," he added.

All three major indices rose on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 rising 0.3 percent to reach a new all-time high of 5,487.

The Dow Jones rose 0.2 percent to 38,834, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished up less than 0.1 percent at 17,862.

Amid the ongoing enthusiasm for Nvidia, other chip companies saw gains on Tuesday, including Qualcomm and Micron, which closed up 2.2 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. (AFP)