With a market capitalization above $3.6 trillion, Apple regained the title of world’s most valuable publicly traded company. The Mac-maker is valued well above Microsoft and Nvidia, both of which had been valued higher earlier this year.
A recent sharp rise in AAPL share value seems to indicate that investors are optimistic that a surge in iPhone sales is on the horizon.
Apple’s return: Becoming world’s most valuable publicly traded company again
Apple first became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company way back in 2012, and it held onto the title for many years. But in January 2024, Microsoft grabbed the crown and kept it for months. In June, chip-maker Nvidia even passed both companies to briefly take the top spot.
But after being in the doldrums, Apple’s share price started showing signs of renewed life this spring. It’s gone up in value 42% since April.
So, as of Monday, The Mac-maker is valued at $3.61 trillion, according to Yahoo Finance. For comparison, Microsoft currently has a market cap of $3.36 trillion, while Nvidia now valued at $3.14 trillion, again according to Yahoo Finance.
Stocks go up and down, so who’s ahead in the battle for world’s most valuable publicly traded company sometimes changes quickly. Nvidia held the title for mere hours, for example. But Apple has owned the top spot for several days now, and its share price is up about 1.8% at mid-day Monday, so the odds of it being supplanted soon seem low.
AI. It’s all about AI.
The market capitalization of all three of the Big Tech companies has been on the rise. Apple’s share price has gone up dramatically since spring, as noted, and Microsoft’s went up 22% since the beginning of 2024, Nvidia shot up an astounding 168%. The reason for all of these is the same: investors’ enthusiasm about artificial intelligence.
In 2023, Microsoft bought a large chunk of OpenAI, the company that touched off the current AI boom by launching ChatGPT. It’s share price has gone up close to 90% since then.
Nvidia makes processors that power the data centers that run artificial intelligence software used by multiple companies. Its share price has gone up over 715% in the past two years.
Apple was behind the curve on AI, which is why its stock value dropped earlier this year. Then it revealed the new Apple Intelligence AI features coming soon to iPhone and Mac in June, returning investor enthusiasm to the stock.
And because only a limited number of current iPhone models support Apple AI, analysts predict a rush of sales of the upcoming iPhone 16. That’s helped push AAPL share prices to record highs.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
