Microsoft joins $4 trillion club, overtakes Apple as AI boom reshapes market leaders

Microsoft just joined one of the most exclusive clubs in finance—the $4 trillion market cap club. And this time, it’s not Apple leading the charge.

Shares of the tech giant jumped more than 5% on Thursday after the company posted stronger-than-expected earnings, pushing its valuation past the $4 trillion mark. That makes Microsoft the second company ever to reach that milestone, right behind Nvidia, which briefly crossed the line earlier this month.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has made headlines for its valuation. In January 2024, the tech giant hit $3 trillion market cap for the first time, becoming the second most valuable company in the world, just behind Apple. At the time, Apple was riding high, having become the first U.S. company to hit $3 trillion market capitalization in the summer of 2023.

Microsoft Surges Past $4 Trillion in Market Cap, Closing the Gap with Nvidia

But things have shifted. Microsoft and Nvidia are now leading the pack, fueled by the AI boom that’s rewriting the leaderboard on Wall Street. Microsoft’s Azure cloud business is front and center in this run-up. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services hit over $75 billion in fiscal 2025—a 34% jump from the year before. For the first time, Microsoft broke out Azure’s revenue numbers, giving investors a clearer view of its growth engine.

That engine is running hot. The company posted 18% revenue growth overall, the fastest pace it’s seen in over three years, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, Apple has slipped to third place with a market cap of about $3.2 trillion. Its stock is down 17% this year, as investors worry the iPhone maker is losing ground in the AI race. Apple is expected to report its quarterly results after the market closes on Thursday.

As for Nvidia, it’s had the strongest showing of any megacap tech stock in 2025, up 33% year to date. The company’s GPUs are powering the large language models used by Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others. They’re also a key part of the infrastructure going into the data centers being built by those same players.

Nvidia is scheduled to report its next earnings in late August. Until then, all eyes will be on whether Microsoft can keep its momentum—and whether Apple can catch up.