AAPL: Apple Stock Briefly Overtakes Microsoft as Tech Giants Race for #1 Spot

Never before has the world seen that much value concentrated in a handful of companies. Top 3 are worth about one-tenth of global stock market.

• Apple stock AAPL leapfrogged Microsoft MSFT as the world’s most valuable company. But only for a moment. The two tech giants are neck and neck in the race for the #1 spot with their market capitalizations nearly identical. The iPhone maker dethroned the Windows creator after its shares added more than 3% on Thursday, raising its value more than $3.3 trillion. Investor nervousness chopped away at that milestone and Apple clocked out slightly lower with a 2.9% gain.
• Microsoft, on the other hand, stood at $3.2 trillion but later added some more billions to that number and closed out for the day as the world’s most expensive company. The new buying momentum in Apple shares came a day after investors saw the company’s response to the sweeping AI revolution — Apple Intelligence. The gen AI model is expected to lift slowing sales of the flagship product, the iPhone.
• But don’t forget the fast-paced advance of chip giant Nvidia NVDA. The company, which briefly kicked out Apple for the second spot, is ranked third with a market value of $3.1 trillion. The combined valuation of all three tech heavyweights is equal to about one-tenth of the global stock market, worth roughly $100 trillion. The mind-boggling figure is playing with investors’ perception of fair value with some calling this froth while others can’t get enough of the shares.