Apple market cap passes Microsoft after AI launch at WWDC

Apple decided it had enough time standing in the shadows. After five long months of trailing behind Microsoft — and even Nvidia, as of last week — Apple has once again reclaimed its spot as the world’s most valuable company.

Since launching its AI initiative Apple Intelligence during its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, the company’s stock price has climbed to an all-time high of $215 per share as investors signaled their faith in the company’s artificial intelligence strategy. In intraday trading Wednesday, Apple’s market capitalization reached $3.3 trillion, just ahead of Microsoft’s $3.25 trillion.

Apple’s had a year of ups and downs. The company faced scrutiny from antitrust regulators at home and abroad. Its iPhone sales struggled in China. Skeptics doubted that it could catch up to rivals on AI. And last week, Nvidia briefly unseated Apple as the world’s second-most valuable company.

Now Apple is back on top, even though its AI products are still a long way away from catching up to those of rivals. While Microsoft’s and Google’s AI tools are already boosting sales at the two companies, Apple won’t benefit from AI-related sales for “years,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in a newsletter Tuesday. That’s because Apple Intelligence launches this fall — and in beta mode at that — and many AI features won’t be available until next year, Gurman noted.

Apple’s ‘Apple Intelligence’ includes AI-powered updates to Siri and an array of native Apple apps. Apple also unveiled that it’s partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT 4-o into its latest iPhone operating system (iOS 18), iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Apple Intelligence will be available in beta mode this fall.

Though Apple may be behind its peers, the company managed to dominate multiple markets after being slow to release products in the past. Apple wasn’t the first company to put mp3s on small devices (i.e. with its iPods) or the first to make smartphones or smartwatches. But it ultimately became the most powerful company in the markets for those products, so much so that it came under fire from both consumers and federal regulators.