By Ogbodo Emmanuel
Apple’s recent AI announcements at WWDC have propelled its stock, momentarily dethroning Microsoft as the most valuable company in the US on Wednesday.
While Nvidia has emerged as a significant player, the primary contenders for the top spot have been Microsoft and Apple. Both companies boast market caps exceeding $3 trillion and have frequently found themselves within $100 billion of each other over the past year.
On January 11, 2024, Microsoft briefly overtook Apple, only to lose the title two hours later and then regain it the following day. However, after Apple’s WWDC 2024 announcements, its stock initially dipped but then surged to a record high. By the close of trading on Tuesday, Apple’s stock had climbed to $207.15, marking a 7.26% increase for the day and bringing it close to Microsoft’s valuation. For a brief period on Wednesday, Apple was ahead of Microsoft in market value. By the end of trading on Wednesday, Apple’s stock had risen to $215.04, placing it just millions of dollars behind Microsoft.
The remarkable growth of Apple is evident when considering its valuation at the launch of the iPad in 2010. At that time, Steve Jobs announced that Apple was worth over $50 billion—an amount sixty times less than its current value. Despite this growth, Apple continues to emphasize that it does not focus on stock prices.
“Apple is an over-50 billion dollar company,” Jobs stated at the iPad launch. “Now, I like to forget that because that’s not how we think about Apple but it is pretty amazing.”
