Microsoft temporarily takes Apple's "throne" Experts believe that the former has greater profit potential
Microsoft temporarily overtakes Apple as the highest-valued publicly traded company. Apple is facing a series of challenges, including a decline in stock price, decreased revenue from Chinese assemblers, and an impending antitrust case by the US Department of Justice. Barclays Bank and Piper Sandler have downgraded Apple's rating. Experts believe that Microsoft has greater profit potential and is making progress in the field of artificial intelligence. Microsoft's introduction of the "Copilot" key is expected to further expand its prospects. Microsoft's stock has seen a slightly stronger increase compared to Apple, and Microsoft has surpassed Apple twice before as the highest-valued publicly traded company. Saudi Aramco also briefly held the title, but Apple maintained it for a year and a half. Approximately half of Apple's revenue relies on Apple.
Zhitong App learned that in the morning trading on Thursday, January 11th, Microsoft (MSFT.US) briefly surpassed Apple (AAPL.US) to become the most valuable listed company in terms of market capitalization. However, Apple quickly rebounded and regained this "throne". Due to stock price fluctuations, this situation may happen again later this week. This is the result of a series of challenges that Apple has encountered at the beginning of the year.
In the morning trading on Thursday, Microsoft's stock price rose by nearly 1%, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.87 trillion, while Apple's stock price fell by a similar magnitude, with a market capitalization of $2.86 trillion.
Last week, Apple's Chinese assembler Foxconn reported a year-on-year decline in revenue, and media reports stated that the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to launch an antitrust case later this year. In addition, Barclays Bank and Piper Sandler have both downgraded Apple's stock rating.
Concerns about Apple's sales have intensified analysts' views on Apple, despite Apple's record of maintaining the highest market capitalization for 539 consecutive days. Due to Microsoft's progress in the field of artificial intelligence, including investment in ChatGPT, experts believe that Microsoft has greater profit potential than Apple.
Also last week, Microsoft announced that it will introduce a "Copilot" key on its keyboard for users to quickly access its artificial intelligence assistant.
In 2023, Microsoft's stock rose by 57%, partly due to investors' hope for the software manufacturer's expansion through selling artificial intelligence services to enterprises. During the same period, Apple's stock rose by 48%.
Microsoft also briefly surpassed Apple to become the most valuable listed company in 2018 and 2021. However, two years ago, Apple became the first company with a market capitalization exceeding $3 trillion. Saudi Aramco also briefly took this title, but was later recaptured by Apple. Apple maintained this title for a year and a half.
Microsoft's performance in the past year has been slightly stronger than Apple's. In 2023, Microsoft's stock rose by 57%, while Apple's rose by 48%. Apple relies on Apple for about half of its revenue, while Microsoft used to rely on its Windows software but now also earns money through cloud computing and devices such as Surface computers.
Analysts say that Apple's slowdown in sales in China is its biggest problem, as competitors such as Huawei are eating away at its market share.
As of Thursday's close, Microsoft rose by 0.49% to $384.63, while Apple fell by 0.32% to $185.59.