Apple surpasses Microsoft as world’s most valuable company

Apple momentarily reached a market capitalization of $3.3 trillion at around 10:45 a.m. ET, briefly surpassing Microsoft’s $3.2 trillion. However, by the closing bell, Microsoft had regained its lead.

The surge in Apple’s stock, which climbed over 7% to a record high on Tuesday, was driven by investor excitement over the company’s ambitious plans for integrating artificial intelligence across its devices. This momentum carried into Wednesday, with shares rising an additional 2.8%, CNBC reported.

On August 2, 2018, Apple became the first company in history with a market capitalization of over $1 trillion on a public stock market. Shares of Apple jumped to hit the magic number of $207.05, making it the first company in the world to reach a market value of $1 trillion. To put this in perspective, “Apple’s $1 trillion cap is equal to about 5 percent of the total gross domestic product of the United States in 2018,” said David Kass, professor of finance at the University of Maryland.

Apple’s latest announcement revealed that it will incorporate generative AI technology into its native apps and newest devices. This includes features like writing assistance and AI-generated emojis under the brand name Apple Intelligence.

Analysts from Morgan Stanley, Evercore, and Bank of America have expressed optimism about these AI advancements. They believe Apple Intelligence will significantly boost new iPhone sales. “Restricting Apple Intelligence to iPhones sold within the last year adds to our conviction that AI can help kick off an iPhone super cycle,” Evercore analysts noted in their reports.

The competition for the top market cap spot remains fierce. Microsoft had previously overtaken Apple earlier this year, and just this month, Nvidia briefly became the second-most valuable public U.S. company.

Interestingly, Microsoft might also benefit from Apple’s AI initiatives. Apple announced it will include OpenAI’s large-language models in its offerings, with more models to be integrated over time. Given that Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI and has seen its Azure cloud services grow thanks to OpenAI’s models, Apple’s AI push could indirectly bolster Microsoft’s position as well.

Founded on April 1, 1976, by Steven Paul Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Gerald Wayne, the Cupertino, California-based Apple is an American multinational technology corporation that designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, portable digital music players, and sells a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications.

Apple is the world’s largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung. Apple was also named the most admired company in the United States in 2008 and in the world from 2008 to 2012 by Fortune magazine.