Apple surpassed $4 trillion (£3 trillion) in market value for the first time on Tuesday, joining Microsoft and Nvidia as the third company in history to reach that milestone, thanks to strong demand for its latest iPhones.
Apple’s stock price has risen more than 50% since its lowest point in April, thanks to the debut of its latest products.
“The iPhone represents more than half of Apple’s profits and revenue, and the more phones they can get into people’s hands, the more they can attract people to their ecosystem,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, said before the milestone was reached.
Apple shares had struggled earlier this year over concerns about 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 line, have won back customers from Beijing to Moscow, while the company has swallowed tariff costs rather than passing them on to consumers.
Analysts said the iPhone Air’s slim design could help fend off rivals such as Samsung Electronics, while initial sales of the iPhone 17 surpassed its predecessor by 14% in the United States and China, data from research firm Counterpoint showed.
Apple is the third company to reach the $4 trillion mark after Nvidia and Microsoft. Nvidia was the first, in July, when the chip designer rode the wave of AI spending. He It currently leads with a market value of more than $4.5 trillion.
Microsoft hit the $4 trillion mark a few weeks later in July. After a subsequent drop in its stock price, it regained its membership in the $4 trillion club on Tuesday after announcing a deal with OpenAI to allow the maker of ChatGPT to restructure and become a for-profit corporation. With OpenAI’s valuation pegged at $500 billion, Microsoft’s 27% stake in it is valued at more than $100 billion.
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While Microsoft has aggressively pursued growth in AI, Apple’s cautious approach had fueled concerns that it could miss out on what could be the industry’s biggest growth catalyst in decades. Recent reports also indicate that the company is losing several of its top AI executives to Meta.
However, Apple reported its strongest quarterly results in years during the April-June period, with double-digit growth in 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 $100 billion in revenue.
The continued strength of the technology sector, along with hopes of another US interest rate cut, helped propel Wall Street to new highs. The Dow and 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 following its latest figures.
While Wall Street has celebrated the arrival of another $4 trillion company, many investors have also taken it as a sign that the stock market is in a bubble.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at trading platform IG, said: “This remains one of the nastiest rallies in history. Every new high for the indices and every milestone reached by individual stocks is presented as evidence of an equity bubble.
“It’s understandable to see signs of nervousness surrounding tech sector results this week, but the market continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience.”
