Microsoft has overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable company

Xbox maker Microsoft surpassed Apple this week to become the world’s most valuable company in terms of market value.

By the end of trading on Friday, Microsoft’s share price had grown by over 5%, bringing its market cap to $2.89 trillion – its highest ever, and surpassing Apple ($2.87 trillion).

Apple had been the world’s most valuable public company for over a year. Microsoft briefly overtook Apple previously in 2018 and 2021.

Microsoft has enjoyed a surge in its share price this year, driven by interest around artificial intelligence. The corporation is the biggest backer of OpenAI, the creator of chatbot ChatGPT.

In comparison, Apple is currently experiencing decreasing demand for the iPhone, especially in China, where the economy has been slow to recover from the pandemic and where it’s seeing increased competition from Huawei.

“It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution,” analyst D.A. Davidson told Reuters.

Apple and Microsoft have been rivals since the 80s in the home computing space. Apple eventually overtook Microsoft in terms of market value after the launch of the iPhone in the 00s.

Commenting on the news, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney wrote: “Congratulations to Microsoft on a well-deserved honor. From Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella, they have a 50-year track record of supporting and empowering developers to do great work, while respecting developer and user freedom. A sharp contrast to Apple and Google.”