Apple has reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable publicly traded company, surpassing Nvidia after the chipmaker's shares slumped more than 3% in early trading on Friday. The iPhone maker hit an all-time intraday high of $334.99, pushing its market capitalization to approximately $4.88 trillion, while Nvidia's fell to about $4.84 trillion.
The leadership change ends Nvidia's 265-trading-day reign at the top, which began in June 2025 when it overtook Microsoft. Nvidia had also became the first company to reach a $5 trillion market cap last October. Apple's return to the summit comes as investors reassess the AI landscape, rewarding companies perceived as able to monetize artificial intelligence without incurring massive capital expenditures. HSBC upgraded Apple stock to Buy from Hold and raised its price target to $366, citing the potential for a major upgrade cycle driven by new AI features and a strong product pipeline.
While Nvidia remains the dominant supplier of AI training chips, the broader semiconductor index has tumbled 22% over the past month, with Nvidia itself down only 3.4% in that stretch. Apple, by contrast, has gained 22% in 2026, buoyed by its newly overhauled Siri and a growing narrative that its installed base of 2.5 billion devices could give it an edge in personalized AI services. Analysts note that Apple's limited capex — just 2.5% of estimated 2026 sales compared to 39% for hyperscalers — is now seen as a strategic asset rather than a weakness.
The shift in sentiment has implications beyond traditional tech stocks. Crypto markets, particularly tokens tied to AI and decentralized computing, often move in sympathy with shifts in the AI narrative. If the market rotation away from pure infrastructure toward application-layer plays continues, it could influence the valuation of blockchain-based AI projects. For now, the immediate reaction in crypto was muted, but further capital flows out of semiconductor stocks and into software and services may eventually spill over into the digital-asset space.
