Apple overtakes Nvidia as world’s most valuable company
Apple overtook Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company and realigned the top ranks among tech heavyweights as investors reassessed their perspective on artificial intelligence.
Apple was last valued at US$4.88 trillion ($A7 trillion) while its shares remained flat, while Nvidia was at roughly US$4.86 trillion after a 3.5 per cent decline.
The shift in pecking order suggests that investors are broadening their focus beyond the most obvious beneficiaries of the AI boom, such as Nvidia, which has been at the helm for almost a year.
Apple regains its top spot for the first time since April last year.
“Apple was seen as a laggard in the AI race because it wasn’t spending on model development, but sentiment has now changed,” said Toni Meadows, chief investment officer at BRI Wealth Management.
“Apple is less exposed to capex intensity and is better positioned to monetize AI through services, ecosystem lock-in and hardware upgrades. The re-rating reflects confidence in earnings resilience rather than speculative AI.”
For a company that has often fallen behind in the AI race, the milestone reflects Apple’s efforts to position itself more firmly among the industry’s leading players and could shape how CEO Tim Cook’s final months at the helm are viewed.
Cook is set to hand over his role to hardware expert John Ternus in September.
Last month, the company launched a long-delayed overhaul of Siri, making claims that the upgraded assistant would help narrow the gap with big tech rivals and new-age startups in the critical AI race.
Some analysts say Apple is sitting on an AI gold mine in the form of personal data that lives on every iPhone.
Data can make Siri’s responses more useful and the assistant more capable.
The challenge is that such data is locked in operating systems for the sake of privacy, and the company needs to find a way to unlock these values.
Nvidia became the first company in the world to surpass $5 trillion market cap in October; This was a turning point that pushed him into rare territory beyond the reach of his rivals.
Being replaced by Apple does not mean that there has been a permanent change in the relative positions of the companies.
The chip maker remains the biggest beneficiary of AI-related spending, and its graphics processors are powering much of the productive AI craze.
If sentiments change, Nvidia could reclaim the top spot.
Apple itself is in a delicate position, having raised prices to offset rising costs; It’s a strategy that could hurt demand.
