On Friday, July 17, Apple defeated artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia and regained the title of the world’s most valuable company. As investors reassess the prospects of AI, the rankings of tech giants have also undergone changes.
In early trading on Friday, Apple’s market value reached $4.91 trillion, closely followed by Nvidia at $4.83 trillion. This shift in rankings indicates that investors are shifting their focus away from Nvidia and other prominent beneficiaries of the AI boom. Since surpassing Microsoft in June 2025, Nvidia has held the title of the world’s most valuable company, but this Friday it handed over the top spot to Apple, which returned to the pinnacle for the first time since April last year.
While Nvidia was the first U.S. company to exceed market values of $4 trillion and $5 trillion, Apple’s rise is also historically significant: it was the first company to surpass $1 trillion and $2 trillion market values in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Apple’s stocks have surged by 22% this year, outperforming the market, with investors highly approving of its AI strategy and capital expenditure model. This week, Apple’s stock price also hit a new high. On Friday, HSBC upgraded Apple’s rating from “hold” to “buy,” noting the company’s advantageous position in the current market environment.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s stock has only risen by 7% this year and remains relatively stagnant. With Wall Street’s focus shifting towards “memory chips” and “infrastructure” for data center construction, Nvidia’s stock performance has been lackluster.
According to Reuters, Toni Meadows, investment director at BRI Wealth Management, stated, “Apple was once seen as a laggard in the AI race because it did not invest in developing models, but now market sentiment has shifted.”
“Apple is less impacted by capital expenditure intensity and is better positioned to commercialize AI through services, ecosystem lock-ins, and hardware upgrades. The revaluation reflects investors’ confidence in its sustained profitability rather than speculative hype around AI concepts,” Meadows said.
For a company that often lagged behind in the AI race, this milestone achievement reflects Apple’s efforts to consolidate its leading position in the industry and may also influence perceptions of CEO Tim Cook’s last few months at the helm of the company. Cook will hand over the CEO position to hardware industry veteran John Ternus in September.
Surpassing Apple does not necessarily mean a permanent change in the relative positions of these two companies. Nvidia remains a major beneficiary of AI-related spending, with its graphics processors providing powerful momentum for the flourishing of Generative Intelligence (GI). If market sentiment shifts, Nvidia could reclaim the top spot.
Reuters quoted Benjamin Hall, Vice President of Alpha Research at Segal Marco Advisors, as saying, “I don’t see any substantial difference between the two. Regardless of how the future unfolds, Nvidia may continue to play a significant role.”
However, the AI boom has spread to other areas of the semiconductor industry. The biggest winners this year have been storage chip manufacturers such as Micron Technology, whose market value surpassed $1 trillion in May as investors recognized the importance of storage chips in AI infrastructure.