Apple is nearing a groundbreaking $ 4 trillion market valuation, fueled by investor excitement over its delayed AI upgrades to revive stagnant iPhone sales. Outpacing Nvidia and Microsoft, Apple’s stock has soared 16% since early November, boosting its market cap by roughly $500 billion. Analyst Tom Forte from Maxim Group attributes this surge to “investor optimism about artificial intelligence sparking a major iPhone upgrade wave.” Currently valued at $3.85 trillion, Apple exceeds the combined worth of Germany and Switzerland’s key stock indices. The tech giant, propelled by past iPhone booms, was the first U.S. firm to reach prior trillion-dollar benchmarks.
Lately, Apple has faced flak for lagging in AI development as rivals Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta have surged ahead in the field. Nvidia, a major AI winner, has seen its shares skyrocket over 800% in two years, while Apple’s nearly doubled in that time. In December, Apple began embedding ChatGPT into its devices, following a June announcement to weave generative AI into its apps. This stock rally has lifted Apple’s price-to-earnings ratio to 33.5—a three-year peak—compared to Microsoft’s 31.3 and Nvidia’s 31.7.