Apple Briefly Unseats Nvidia as World’s Most Valuable Company Amid AI Push
Apple's market value edged past Nvidia's for the first time in over a year on Friday, as investors rotated away from chip stocks toward AI-driven services growth.
For the first time in more than a year, Apple was the most valuable company on Earth.
Apple’s market capitalization edged past Nvidia’s on Friday, reaching about $4.88 trillion as the chipmaker’s shares slid amid a broader reassessment of the AI trade, as per Forbes.
Apple shares closed the day at $333.74, ending trading as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company for the first time since April 2025. However, the lead didn’t last long, with Nvidia narrowly reclaiming the top spot later in the session.
A Narrow, Symbolic Swap at the Top
The numbers moved fast and stayed close. Forbes reports Nvidia shares dropped 3.9% shortly after Friday’s open, pulling its valuation down to about $4.82 trillion, before the stock pared its losses to a 2.2% decline and closed near $4.91 trillion.
Reuters put the two companies at roughly $4.88 trillion for Apple and $4.86 trillion for Nvidia. At the moment, Apple took the lead, following a 3.5% drop in Nvidia’s shares.
AppleInsider noted that the gap between Apple and Nvidia remained very small, meaning either company could retake the top spot in the next trading sessions.
However, Apple’s comeback followed reports that its Alibaba partnership to bring Apple Intelligence to China, easing earlier regulatory and growth concerns and boosting investor confidence.
Why Investors Are Rewarding Apple’s AI Restraint
The reshuffling reflects a shift in how Wall Street views Apple’s AI strategy. Toni Meadows, head of investment at BRI Wealth Management, told Reuters that Apple had been seen as a laggard in the AI race because it wasn’t spending to develop its own intelligence models.
But that sentiment has since changed, with Apple now viewed as less exposed to heavy capital spending and better positioned to monetize AI through services, ecosystem lock-in, and hardware upgrades.
AppleInsider points to the underlying momentum behind that view: Apple posted a record $143.8 billion quarter over the holidays, up 16%, followed by a March-quarter record of $111.2 billion, up 17%.
The company also previewed its long-delayed Siri AI overhaul at WWDC in June, now in beta ahead of this fall’s operating system updates, reinforcing a strategy of layering AI across more than two billion active devices instead of spending heavily on data centers of Big Tech.
Nvidia’s Rougher Year and the Bigger Picture
Nvidia’s decline comes amid a broader chip market slowdown. Forbes reports Apple has gained nearly 23% this year, compared with Nvidia’s 7.3%, while both remain worth more than the economies of Japan, the United Kingdom, or India.
Nvidia became the first company to cross a $5 trillion valuation in October, months after topping $4 trillion in July 2025.
Since then, Reuters reports the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen nearly 19% from its record high as investors’ sentiments shift on AI trade, with the newly Nasdaq-listed SK Hynix, which briefly became South Korea’s most valuable firm, adding more competition.
Apple’s ascent arrives just as the company approaches its first CEO transition since 2011, with Tim Cook set to become executive chairman on September 1 and hardware chief John Ternus taking over, a handoff that has done little to slow the stock’s climb.
Source: Apple Briefly Unseats Nvidia As World’s Largest Company
