Microsoft edges out Apple as world's most valuable company
By Noel Randewich
(Reuters) — Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s stock market value ended a trading session higher than Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s for the first time since 2021 on Friday, making it the world's most valuable company as worries about demand hit the iPhone maker's shares.
Apple crept up 0.2% on Friday, while Microsoft added 1%. With that, Microsoft's market capitalization stood at $2.887 trillion, its highest ever, according to LSEG data. Apple's market capitalization was $2.875 trillion, calculated with data in a filing on Thursday.
Worries about smartphone demand have pushed Apple's shares down 3% so far in 2024 after rallying 48% last year. Microsoft is up about 3% year to date after surging 57% in 2023 in a rally driven in part by its lead in generative artificial intelligence through an investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
Apple's market capitalization peaked at $3.081 trillion on Dec. 14, according to LSEG.
Microsoft has incorporated OpenAI's technology across its suite of productivity software, a move that helped spark a rebound in its cloud-computing business in the July-September quarter. Its AI lead has also created an opportunity to challenge Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s dominance of web search.
Apple, meanwhile, has been grappling with tepid demand, including for the iPhone, its cash cow. Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country's economy makes a slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and a resurgent Huawei erodes its market share.
Sales of Apple's Vision Pro mixed-reality headset start on Feb. 2 in the United States, marking Apple's biggest product launch since the iPhone in 2007. However, UBS in a report this week estimated that Vision Pro sales would be «relatively immaterial» to Apple's
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