Microsoft Briefly Overtakes Apple as World's Most Valuable Company

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft logo is seen on the smartphone in front of displayed Apple logo in this illustration taken, July 26, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Microsoft logo is seen on the smartphone in front of displayed Apple logo in this illustration taken, July 26, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Microsoft Briefly Overtakes Apple as World's Most Valuable Company

FILE PHOTO: Microsoft logo is seen on the smartphone in front of displayed Apple logo in this illustration taken, July 26, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Microsoft logo is seen on the smartphone in front of displayed Apple logo in this illustration taken, July 26, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Microsoft on Thursday briefly overtook Apple as the world's most valuable company for the first time since 2021 after the iPhone maker's shares made a weak start to the year on growing concerns over demand, Reuters said.
Microsoft's shares have risen sharply since last year, thanks to the early lead the company has taken in generative artificial intelligence through an investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
Microsoft's stock closed 0.5% higher, giving it a market valuation of $2.859 trillion. It rose as much as 2% during the session and the company was briefly worth $2.903 trillion.
Shares of Apple closed 0.3% lower, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.886 trillion. Microsoft and Apple have jostled for top spot over the years.
"It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.
Microsoft has incorporated OpenAI's technology across its suite of productivity software, a move that helped spark a rebound in its cloud-computing business in the July-September quarter.
Apple, meanwhile, has been grappling with weakening demand, including for the iPhone, its biggest cash cow. Demand in China, a major market, has slumped as the country's economy makes a slow recovery from the pandemic and a resurgent Huawei chips away at its market share.
"China could be a drag on performance over the coming years," brokerage Redburn Atlantic said in a client note on Wednesday, downgrading Apple's shares to "neutral".
At least three of the 41 analysts covering Apple have lowered their ratings since the start of 2024.
Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple have fallen 3.3% in January as of the last close, compared with a 1.8% rise in Microsoft.
Both stocks are expensive in terms of their share price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, a common method of valuing publicly listed companies.
Apple is trading at a forward PE of 28, well above its average of 19 over the past 10 years, according to LSEG data.
Microsoft is trading around 31 times forward earnings, above its 10-year average of 24.
Shares of Apple, whose market capitalization peaked at $3.081 trillion on Dec. 14, ended last year with a gain of 48%. That was lower than the 57% rise posted by Microsoft.
Microsoft has briefly taken the lead over Apple as the most valuable company a handful of times since 2018, including in 2021 when concerns about COVID-driven supply chain shortages hit the iPhone maker's stock price.
Currently, Wall Street is more positive on Microsoft. The company has no "sell" rating and nearly 90% of the brokerages covering the company recommend buying the stock.
Apple has two "sell" ratings and only two-thirds of the analysts covering the company rate it a "buy".



Nvidia CEO Says Global Cooperation in Tech will Continue under Trump Administration

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang poses for a photo after receiving an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in Hong Kong on November 23, 2024. (Photo by Holmes CHAN / AFP)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang poses for a photo after receiving an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in Hong Kong on November 23, 2024. (Photo by Holmes CHAN / AFP)
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Nvidia CEO Says Global Cooperation in Tech will Continue under Trump Administration

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang poses for a photo after receiving an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in Hong Kong on November 23, 2024. (Photo by Holmes CHAN / AFP)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang poses for a photo after receiving an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in Hong Kong on November 23, 2024. (Photo by Holmes CHAN / AFP)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology will continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products.
US President-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security - a policy continued under President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world's leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence applications, to change its product lineup in China.
"Open science in global collaboration, cooperation across math and science has been around for a very long time. It is the foundation of social advancement and scientific advancement," Huang told media during a visit to Hong Kong.
Cooperation is "going to continue. I don't know what's going to happen in the new administration, but whatever happens, we'll balance simultaneously compliance with laws and policies, continue to advance our technology and support and serve customers all over the world."
The head of the world's most valuable company was speaking in the financial hub after receiving an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Reuters reported.
During the visit, Huang participated in a fireside chat with the university's Council Chairman Harry Sham in front of an audience of students and academics.
Asked about the huge energy requirements of graphics processing units - chips behind artificial intelligence - Huang said, "If the world uses more energy to power the AI factories of the world, we are a better world when that happens".
Huang said "the goal of AI is not for training, the goal of AI is for inference". He said AI can discover, for instance, new ways to store carbon dioxide in reservoirs, new wind turbine designs and new materials for storing electricity.
He said people should start thinking about placing AI supercomputers slightly off the power grid and let them use sustainable energy and in places away from populations.
"My hopes and dreams is that in the end, what we all see is that using energy for intelligence is the best use of energy we can imagine," Huang said.
Earlier on Saturday, Huang told graduates that "the age of AI has started" in a speech after receiving the honorary degree.
"A new computing era that will impact every industry and every field of science."