Nvidia’s $4.8 trillion slip just handed Apple the world’s biggest company title

A 3.7% drop in Nvidia’s share price on Friday was enough to knock the chipmaker off the top of the world’s most valuable companies list, according to a Bloomberg report. The slide cut Nvidia’s market value to about $4.8 trillion, while Apple, up 0.4% on the day, climbed to a valuation of roughly $4.9 trillion to reclaim the crown.

Apple last held this position before Nvidia overtook it in May 2025, meaning Friday’s move ends more than a year on the sidelines. Bloomberg attributes the shift to investors rotating out of the stocks that gained the most from the artificial intelligence boom and into companies viewed as more durable long-term bets — a category where Apple has increasingly been placed.

Apple’s own numbers explain why. The stock has climbed 21% since its June low and sits 23% higher for the year overall, outperforming every other member of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ group of technology giants. Over the same stretch, the Nasdaq 100 Index rose 12% and the S&P 500 Index gained 8.6%, both trailing Apple’s pace by a wide margin.

Government approval for Apple to launch Apple Intelligence in China has added further fuel to the rally, opening up a major market for the company’s AI features. At the same time, Nvidia has been dealing with a separate headwind: reports that a new AI model built by Chinese startup Moonshot can rival top models from OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which run on Nvidia’s chips, have raised questions about whether AI infrastructure spending is close to a ceiling.

HSBC weighed in with an upgrade of Apple’s stock to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ this week. Analyst Nicolas Cote-Colisson called Apple’s current position an ‘operational turning point,’ noting that the company is positioned to sidestep ‘the (too) high capex debate’ while leaning on its 2.5 billion installed device base as its revamped Apple Intelligence rolls out.

Apple Park/CC-BY-SA 3.0/by Arne Müseler