Microsoft Surpasses Apple to Become the World’s Highest-Valued Public Company
Microsoft, which has trailed Apple for much of the last decade, is now the world’s most valuable publicly traded company as of Friday’s close.
Microsoft shares (MSFT) closed at $338.47 per share on Friday, with a market cap of $2.89 trillion. By comparison, Apple (AAPL) closed at $185.92 per share, giving it a market cap of $2.87 trillion.
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Market capital, often referred to as market cap, represents the total value of all publicly traded products. Listed companies essentially share their market capitalization.
Microsoft’s rise to the top of the list is due to its performance driven by the progress it has made in artificial intelligence (AI) over the years. In 2023, CEO Satya Nadella invested billions of dollars in AI, outpacing competitors in incorporating AI tools like ChatGPT into the company’s product suite.
Nadella also supported Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, a major player in the artificial intelligence field, during a change in OpenAI’s board and leadership last year. take action.
At the same time, Apple faces a lot of competition. iPhone sales have slowed, in part due to reports that the Chinese government has banned purchases (which Beijing denies). This allowed Chinese smartphone maker Huawei to gain market share. Additionally, Apple is facing a temporary ban on sales of new Apple Watch models in the United States.
Microsoft finished as the top public company in the U.S. market on Friday, surpassing Apple on Thursday after briefly overtaking it in the daily market.
Microsoft’s stock price rose more than 3% this week, increasing its market value to $2.89 trillion, while Apple’s stock price fell more than 3%, reducing its value to approximately $2.87 trillion.
Redburn Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell reduced Apple’s rating from “buy” to “neutral”, arguing that the growth potential of the iPhone next year is limited and is not expected in March.
Apple announced Thursday that former Vice President Al Gore, who has served as CEO since 2003, will retire following a board meeting this month.
< br>In contrast, Microsoft received a vote of confidence after demonstrating its intellectual prowess to developers at an event in San Francisco. Analysts at Piper Sandler expressed strong support for Microsoft’s smartest product, noting that GitHub’s website traffic grew faster than last year for three consecutive months. Analysts gave a buy rating to Microsoft shares.
Apple, which held the title of the most important company for more than a year, has now replaced Microsoft after Saudi Aramco and Microsoft briefly surpassed Apple to hold this title.
