Microsoft overtakes Apple as world's most valuable company

On Thursday, Microsoft once again became the world's most valuable public company, displacing Apple from the top spot. Shares of the Windows developer rose by about 1% at the beginning of trading, pushing its market value to $2.87 trillion, while Apple's shares, on the contrary, fell by almost 1%.

Microsoft's success was fueled by the boom in the artificial intelligence market, driven by the immense popularity of the ChatGPT chatbot from OpenAI, in which Microsoft has invested significantly. This service has been consistently growing since its launch at the end of 2022 and continues to do so this year. Microsoft has become one of the major beneficiaries of this project.  

Apple remained on the sidelines of the AI market surge. Additionally, concerns about declining iPhone sales, especially in China, negatively impacted its market capitalization, leading to a decrease in the outlook for its stocks by some Wall Street analysts.

The rivalry between Apple and Microsoft traces back to the 1980s when Apple accused the Windows producer of stealing numerous elements of its MacOS. Apple lost a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit against Windows in the early 1990s, paving the way for Microsoft's dominance in the PC software market for decades.

The success of the iPhone allowed Apple to finally surpass Microsoft in market value in 2010, and it held that position for several years. In 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft briefly outpaced Apple due to strong positions in cloud computing amid the remote work boom, while Apple faced issues in iPhone production due to factory shutdowns and supply chain problems. However, each time, Apple reclaimed its position as the top company by market capitalization.

While Microsoft focused on integrating AI technologies into its products, Apple is pinning hopes on the upcoming launch of the mixed-reality headset Vision Pro next month, aiming to usher in a new era of "spatial computing" with innovative capabilities.