Wall Street in terms of market value, but in the eyes of the 128-year-old Dow Jones Industrial Average, its stock is ranked well below average. The semiconductor maker and leader of the artificial-intelligence boom officially became a member of the venerable index at 9:30 a.

Financial writer analyzes historical DJIA changes to caution against over-optimism on Nvidia Corporation's stock inclusion. Click for my NVDA performance update.

Also know that, unlike the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq Composite, the Dow is weighted by price rather than by market cap. Although Nvidia has an outsized influence on the movements of the cap-weighted benchmarks, at current prices NVDA stock will be as important to the DJIA as, roughly, 3M ( MMM ).