Microsoft briefly reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable public company, surpassing Apple in market capitalization once more. This marks their first such shift since 2021. Microsoft's stock has seen a significant boost in recent months, fueled in part by its AI-related announcements. In contrast, Apple has faced concerns about its iPhone sales, resulting in these two tech giants trading places in terms of market value on the Nasdaq today.
Over the past month, Apple's stock has been on a downward trend due to worries about iPhone sales in China and potential concerns about the sales performance of the iPhone 15.
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Rating agencies have recently downgraded Apple's stock, leading to a significant reduction of approximately $162 billion in Apple's market capitalization in the year 2024 alone.
On the other hand, Microsoft has been riding the AI wave for over half a year now. It's stock has experienced a significant upturn since the previous year, primarily due to the company's early adoption of generative artificial intelligence, facilitated by its investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
The company's stock also experienced a noticeable surge when it introduced a substantial price increase for Copilot in Microsoft 365, representing its AI-driven vision for the future of Office documents.
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Since that announcement, hardly a week has passed without Microsoft unveiling fresh AI features or making adjustments to its software and services.
On Thursday, Microsoft's shares increased by 0.7%, resulting in a market value of $2.865 trillion for the company.
Earlier in the session, Microsoft's stock experienced a surge of up to 2%, briefly pushing the company's market value to $2.903 trillion.
In contrast, Apple's shares declined by 0.9%, resulting in a market capitalization of $2.871 trillion for the company.
"It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.
Microsoft and Apple have been engaged in a longstanding battle for the title of the most valuable public company, frequently swapping positions in recent years. Microsoft managed to surpass Apple in terms of market capitalization in 2021, 2020, and 2018, only for Apple to subsequently reclaim the top spot. Google also briefly overtook Apple's market capitalization in 2016.
What would be your bet for the coming years (or days)?
