Apple briefly hit $4 trillion market capitalisation for the first time on Tuesday, joining fellow Big Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia, which crossed the threshold earlier this year.
The California company hit the milestone during morning trading after market technology research company Counterpoint Research reported that the iPhone 17 series has outsold the iPhone 16 by 14 per cent in the first 10 days of availability in the US and China.
The report said iPhone 17 sales have been performing especially well in China, a key market for the iPhone maker.
“The base model iPhone 17 is very compelling to consumers, offering great value for money,” said Mengmeng Zhang, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.
Apple shares have risen more than 25 per cent over the past three months as the company has so far avoided the worst of US President Donald Trump's tariffs. The White House said in August that smartphones were exempt from tariffs on India, where the majority of US-bound iPhones are manufactured.
Shares in the company climbed 0.1 per cent following the report before trading roughly 0.05 per cent lower as of 11.07am EST / 7.07pm GST.
In August, Apple announced it would invest an additional $100 billion in US manufacturing, part of its efforts to avoid the tariffs. The investment commitment built on a $500 billion pledge it made in February.
Microsoft crossed the $4 trillion threshold in July. It hit the valuation again on Tuesday, surpassing Apple as the world's second-most valuable company, after it reached a deal with OpenAI that would allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure as a public benefit corporation (PBC). Microsoft will hold a stake of $135 billion – or 27 per cent – in the OpenAI Group PBC that would be controlled by the OpenAI Foundation.
Microsoft said that once OpenAI says it has reached Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a type of artificial intelligence that matches or surpasses human capabilities, it would have to be verified by an independent expert panel.
In a blog post, OpenAI said the OpenAI Foundation would dedicate an initial $25 billion to accelerating health breakthroughs and supporting technical solutions to AI resilience.
“Apple and Microsoft both crossing $4 trillion on the same day isn't a coincidence. It's the market recognising two distinct but equally valid AI strategies,” said Mohammed Soliman of McLarty Associates, a Washington strategy advisory firm, who is the author of the newsletter Compute.
“Microsoft is betting on platform ubiquity through OpenAI, while Apple will inevitably leverage on-device AI as a moat for privacy and latency. By 2027, the most valuable AI applications will be autonomous agents that execute complex workflows, and the winner will be whoever solves the reliability problem first.”
Chip bellwether Nvidia became the first company to pass $4 trillion in market capitalisation in July, due to significant investment in artificial intelligence. Investment in AI infrastructure and technology has propelled US markets to record highs this year, despite tariff uncertainty.
The Wall Street index was trading 0.09 per cent higher on Tuesday after closing above 6,800 for the first time on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite, which hit fresh records on Monday, were also trading slightly higher during Tuesday's session.
The milestone comes amid a major week for Big Tech earnings, when a bevy of the so-called Magnificent 7 companies are due to report.
Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta will report third-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Wednesday, while Apple and Amazon are due to report on Thursday.
Traders will also be closely watching Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's remarks at the Nvidia GTC Conference in Washington.
