Microsoft briefly surpasses Apple as world’s most valuable company
Microsoft overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company after the iPhone maker began 2024 with its worst start in years due to growing demand concerns.
nypost.com
Microsoft briefly overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company after the iPhone maker began in 2024 with its worst start in years due to growing demand concerns.
Shares of Microsoft rose 1.5% in early trading hours on Thursday, giving the company founded by Bill Gates a market cap of $2.88 trillion.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company’s surge has been attributed to its early lead in the generative artificial intelligence race, including its $1 billion investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in 2019.
Microsoft recently amped up its bet on the Sam Altman-run AI company, committing an additional $10 billion as part of a “multiyear” agreement.
Apple’s market cap, meanwhile, dipped to $2.86 trillion – down from the $3.081 trillion valuation it enjoyed at its peak on Dec. 14, 2023.
However, by the time the market closed Thursday, Apple finished with a slight edge — by $20 million.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company had closed out the year with an annual gain of 48%.
The advance was lower than the 57% rise posted by Microsoft, which has aggressively rolled out AI-powered tools over the past year, including its most recent Copilot chatbot, previously known as Microsoft’s Bing Chat.
Microsoft has briefly taken the lead over Apple as the most valuable company a handful of times since 2018, most recently in 2021 when concerns about COVID-driven supply chain shortages hit the iPhone maker’s stock price.
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