Microsoft Briefly Surpasses Apple To Become World's Most Valuable Company

(RTTNews) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) briefly surpassed Apple Inc. (AAPL) to become the world's largest company by market value during Thursday's trading session.

This milestone occurred as Microsoft's stock gained about 1 percent in early Thursday trading, pushing its market value to $2.87 trillion, edging ahead of its rival. However, the two companies exchanged the top position multiple times throughout the trading day.

Apple's shares had experienced a downward trend in recent months, primarily attributed to concerns about potential weak sales of the iPhone 15 and a decline in iPhone revenue in China, as reported by Foxconn, a Chinese assembler of Apple's iPhones. Additionally, Apple faced challenges from an antitrust case initiated by the U.S. Justice Department, contributing to a further decline in its stock ratings.

During the same period, Microsoft had been gaining on stock indices fueled by its growth in AI business. The software giant is the biggest supporter of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and had recently announced plans to introduce Copilot keys on Windows PC keyboards which will provide quicker access to AI assistant.

In 2023, Microsoft's shares outperformed Apple's, with a 57 percent increase compared to Apple's 48 percent.

While the software company is busy in developing large language models for its AI business, Apple is planning to launch its new Vision Pro headset next month which would start a new era of "spatial computing" by relying on 3D graphics and new hand gestures to make interactions easier and natural.

Earlier, Microsoft had briefly surpassed Apple in stock market in 2018 and 2021, when supply chain shortages took a toll on sale of iPhones.