Apple becomes the world's most valuable company (again) ahead of Microsoft after recently unveiling its AI strategy

What you need to know

• Apple is now the world's most valuable company.
• Microsoft briefly held the crown due to its early investment and adoption of AI, but the iPhone maker is seemingly catching up after joining the fray.
• Apple is a few hundred million ahead of Microsoft and NVIDIA in a tight race to hit the iPhone moment with AI.

Microsoft and NVIDIA have been ripping huge benefits because of their heavy investment in AI . The former has enjoyed the most valuable company crown for the past few months, with market analysts predicting it's on the verge of reaching its iPhone moment with AI ahead of Apple. The same applies to NVIDIA, which became the second most valuable company in the world with over $3 trillion in market capitalization .

However, the situation changed after Apple announced its debut in the AI landscape at its WWDC 2024 event earlier this week. At the conference, the iPhone maker announced a slew of AI features shipping to its devices alongside its new partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone .

Consequently, Apple's stock price surged by 3%, making it the world's most valuable company, ahead of Microsoft with $3.34 trillion in market valuation. While the gap between Microsoft and Apple is a few hundred million and is likely to change, it's impressive to see Apple rise to the top thanks to its new AI advances and Apple Intelligence .

Apple's late debut to the AI landscape, coupled with depressed iPhone sales in the Chinese market and dying Vision Pro hype, negatively impacted its stock value, but its AI efforts are seemingly paying off. Microsoft's market valuation currently sits at $3.26 trillion. Apple might finally be on track to hit its iPhone moment with AI, too.