Nvidia beats Microsoft and Apple to become the world’s most valuable company

Nvidia Corp’s surge continues, propelling the chipmaker to the top of the global tech market capitalization leaderboard. The AI chip maker has beaten technology giants Apple and Microsoft to become the world’s most-valuable company. This achievement underscores the dominance of artificial intelligence (AI) in investor focus.
Shares climbed as high as 3.4% on Tuesday (June 18), pushing Nvidia’s market cap past Microsoft and Apple, the current No.1 and No. 2 companies. The top tech companies have been vying for the number one spot throughout June, with Nvidia ultimately edging out its rivals. Nvidia’s ascent to the top has been record-breaking, driven by significant revenue growth fueled by AI. The company’s share price has surged over 160% so far in 2024, adding more than $2 trillion to its market cap.
Apple vs Microsoft vs Nvidia: The market cap battle
Earlier this month, Nvidia surpassed Apple in market value for the first time in over two decades. Since then, the two companies have been in a back-and-forth battle for the top position. Last week, Apple briefly overtook Microsoft as the leader.

What Nvidia becoming the world’s most valuable company means

According to Bloomberg, “The ranking is yet another reminder that AI is the top focus of many investors. Nvidia is seen as the biggest and earliest beneficiary of the technology as it dominates the market with its highly sought-after chips that help power data centers running complex computing tasks required by AI applications. Demand for its H100 accelerators are surging and helped drive the chip maker’s sales up by more than 125% last year.”
This ranking shift highlights the paramount importance of AI for investors. Nvidia is widely seen as the frontrunner and biggest beneficiary AI technology going mainstream. The company holds a dominant market position with its sought-after chips.
While Microsoft is also considered an early leader in AI due to its investment in and partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, Apple only recently unveiled its AI plans, leading to a recent stock rally that appeased investors.
Analysts predict an intense competition between Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft for the first $4 trillion market cap in the tech sector, according to a note from Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives.
Investors and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believe the company transcends the label of a simple chipmaker.
“They’re not just selling chips, they’re selling systems,” stated Michael Lippert, vice president and portfolio manager at Baron Capital Inc, told Bloomberg. He emphasized Nvidia’s proprietary software and development ecosystem as key differentiators.