Apple hit a major stock market milestone Tuesday, with its market capitalization surpassing the staggering $4 trillion mark for the first time. Its valuation shot up recently after reports that the new iPhone 17 models are selling well.
But Apple isn’t the first in the $4T club.
Strong iPhone sales boost Apple to $4 trillion market cap
The total value of all Apple shares grew to make it the world’s most valuable publicly traded company for the first time in 2010. Back then, the company’s market cap was roughly $300 billion. Fast forward to today, and Apple’s market capitalization passed $4 trillion, and that only makes it the third most valuable company worldwide.
It’s beaten out by Nvidia (currently $4.7 trillion) and Microsoft ($4.02 trillion). Nvidia makes the chips powering the artificial intelligence revolution, while Microsoft partnered with OpenAI, the company at the forefront of AI software.
In contrast, enthusiasm about artificial intelligence is absolutely not what’s fueling Apple’s recent stock rise. The company’s famously struggling with AI. Instead, Apple’s share price started to surge last week after analysts at Counterpoint Research reported that handset sales after the launch of the iPhone 17 series in the U.S. and China beat the iPhone 16 launch by 14%.
What goes up can come down
The recent run-up of Apple’s share price could be the result of investors realizing they’ve been pessimistic about the company. Alternatively, it could be overoptimism based on an unconfirmed report about iPhone 17 sales coming from analysts.
Apple is scheduled to announce the results of its most recent financial quarter this Thursday. That’ll bring investors’ first official look at how well the latest iPhone is selling. Also, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh will hold a conference call with analysts after the results are announced, and a highlight will be a prediction on how strong the company’s revenue will be for the current quarter.
Whether Apple’s market capitalization is above or below $4 trillion on Friday will depend heavily on what company executives say during Thursday’s earnings call.
