Apple’s market capitalization surpassed, for the first time, the $5 trillion threshold during Tuesday’s trading session. The group thus became the second listed company in the world to reach this level after Nvidia, before its shares pared gains as the session progressed.
The Apple stock rose to $342.89 intraday, valuing the group’s market capitalization at about $5.036 trillion. It then fell back to $339.33, bringing the company’s market capitalization to nearly $4.98 trillion.
Apple had reclaimed, in July, the world’s top spot among the most valuable companies, ahead of Nvidia, which had been the first to exceed the $5 trillion threshold.
Nvidia’s market capitalization stood at about $4.78 trillion on Tuesday, while its shares rose 0.53%.
A Clear Outperformance
Apple’s stock has gained nearly 25% since the start of the year, outperforming most of the major technology groups collectively known as the “Magnificent Seven,” including Nvidia, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft.
Analysts attribute this performance to sustained strong demand for the company’s products, as well as its strategy of staying out of the race for massive investments in artificial intelligence, which weighed on cash flows and increased the debt of several of its rivals.
Rather than developing its own AI models, Apple chose to integrate Google’s technologies into new services, notably the enhanced version of its voice assistant Siri. This approach allowed it to avoid colossal investments in data centers and infrastructure.
The company’s decision to keep iPhone prices unchanged, despite increases in the prices of MacBooks and iPads, has also supported demand for its smartphones. Consumers have accelerated their purchases, fearing possible price increases later in the year.
A Financing Program
Apple launched on Tuesday, in the United States, a device-leasing program in partnership with Klarna. This scheme allows consumers to subscribe to monthly payments starting at $17.99 for an iPhone, $11.99 for an Apple Watch or an iPad, and $24.99 for a Mac.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and senior principal analyst at Forrester, estimated that Apple was betting on the idea that the user experience, and not the scale of spending on AI infrastructure, would be the decisive factor in the competition.
He added that this new leasing program did not lower the price of devices, but changed the perception of their cost for consumers by turning it into predictable monthly payments.
Apple is set to publish its fiscal third-quarter results after the market closes on Thursday. Analysts expect more than a 15% year-over-year increase in its quarterly revenue compared with the same period last year.
