iPhone maker Apple has pulled ahead in the race to dominate artificial intelligence technology, knocking Microsoft off the top spot on Wednesday to once again become the world’s most valuable company.
The company’s shares rose nearly 4% to a record high of $215.04, giving it a market capitalization of $3.29 trillion.
Microsoft’s market capitalization hit $3.24 trillion, trailing Apple for the first time in five months.
The stock market surge came after the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a record high on new signs of slowing inflation.
Apple’s shares had risen more than 7% the previous day after the company announced a series of AI-enabled features and software enhancements to its products that several analysts expected to boost iPhone sales.
At Apple’s annual developers conference on Monday, CEO Tim Cook and other executives touted the ability for the company’s voice assistant, Siri, to interact with messages, email, calendars and even third-party apps.
“Any doubts about Apple lagging behind in terms of AI technology were put to rest at the Worldwide Developers Conference,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
“When you look at the details of the AI features expected to be included in the next iPhone, you can see that there is definitely demand for a significant upgrade cycle.”
The tech giant has lagged behind rivals such as Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet in the red-hot field of AI, which has led its shares to underperform relative to their peers this year.
But concerns about the company’s sluggish stock price were eased in part after Apple in May reported quarterly earnings and outlook that beat market expectations and announced a record $110 billion share buyback plan.
Apple’s stock price is up about 12% so far in 2024, while Microsoft’s and Alphabet’s are up about 16% and 28%, respectively.
AI chip leader Nvidia, which briefly surpassed Apple’s market capitalization last week, is up a staggering 154% so far this year.
Nvidia’s market cap was last at $3.11 trillion.
Tesla has fallen about 30% this year, making it the only “Magnificent Seven” stock to perform worse than Apple.
