Apple topped $4tn (£3tn) in market value for the first time on Tuesday, joining Microsoft and Nvidia as the third company in history to hit the milestone, thanks to strong demand for its latest iPhones.
Apple’s share price has increased by more than 50% since a low point in April, thanks to the debut of its latest products.
“The iPhone accounts for over half of Apple’s profit and revenue, and the more phones they can get into the hands of people, the more they can drive people into their ecosystem,” said Chris Zaccarelli, the chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, before the milestone was reached.
Apple’s shares had struggled earlier this year on concerns over tough competition in China and how it would cope with high US tariffs on Asian economies such as China and India, its main manufacturing hubs.
However, the latest smartphones, the iPhone 17 lineup, have won back customers from Beijing to Moscow, while the company has swallowed tariff costs instead of passing them on to consumers.
Analysts said the iPhone Air’s slim design could help fend off rivals such as Samsung Electronics, while early sales of the iPhone 17 outperformed its predecessor by 14% in the US and China, data from the research company Counterpoint showed.
Apple is the third company to hit the $4tn mark after Nvidia and Microsoft. Nvidia was the first, in July, as the chip designer rode the wave of AI spending. It currently leads with a market value of more than $4.5tn.
Microsoft hit the $4tn mark a few weeks later in July. After a subsequent dip in its share price, it reclaimed its membership in the $4tn club on Tuesday after it announced a deal with OpenAI to allow the ChatGPT maker to restructure itself into a for-profit corporation. With OpenAI’s valuation pegged at $500bn, Microsoft’s 27% stake in it is valued at more than $100bn.
skip past newsletter promotion
A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
While Microsoft has aggressively pursued growth in AI, Apple’s cautious approach had fuelled concerns it could lose out on what could be the industry’s biggest growth catalyst in decades. Recent reports also indicate that the company is losing a number of its senior artificial intelligence executives to Meta.
However, Apple reported its strongest quarterly results in years during the April-June period, with double-digit growth across key segments, and its forecasts were better than analysts’ expectations. The company is expected to announce its fourth-quarter results on Thursday when analysts anticipate its highly profitable services division – which includes iCloud and Apple Pay – will surpass $100bn in revenue.
The continued strength in the technology sector, along with hopes of another cut in US interest rates, helped lift Wall Street to new highs. The Dow and the Nasdaq Composite rose about 0.5% in early afternoon trading, while the S&P 500 added 0.1%.
Meanwhile in the UK, the FTSE 100 closed at a record 9,696.74, up 0.44%, helped by a rise in HSBC shares after its latest figures.
While Wall Street has celebrated the arrival of yet another $4tn company, many investors have also taken it as a sign that the stock market is in a bubble.
Chris Beauchamp, the chief market analyst at the trading platform IG, said: “This continues to be one of the most disliked rallies in history. Each new high in indices and every milestone achieved by individual stocks is presented as evidence of a bubble in equities.
“It is understandable to see signs of nervousness around tech earnings this week, but the market continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience.”
