Microsoft (not Apple) is the most valuable company in the world

Microsoft is the new queen of the stock market.
In fact, the company concluded the trading session on Wall Street on Friday 12 January as the company listed on the stock exchange with the highest value.
The news is twofold: the achievement of the company founded by Bill Gates has in fact taken on more importance due to the fact that Apple has been displaced from the podium.
In detail, Microsoft has overtaken the Bitten Apple, reclaiming the crown after its market value increased by more than $1 trillion over the past year.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft ended the day at $2.89 trillion, higher than Apple's $2.87 trillion.
The historic overtaking, according to analysts, highlights the increasingly strategic role of Artificial Intelligence.
Will this be the turning point for big tech? Meanwhile, Microsoft's market value, the largest of all, offers food for thought.
Why Microsoft is worth more than Apple Microsoft-Apple: will this be the tech and stock challenge of 2024? The podium of Bill Gates' company achieved by market value highlighted some crucial signals from the world of technology.
As analysts note, concerns about smartphone demand have pushed Apple shares down 3% so far in 2024, after rallying 48% last year.
Microsoft is up about 3% year to date, after rising 57% in 2023 in a rally driven in part by its leadership in generative artificial intelligence through an investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
According to LSEG, Apple's market capitalization peaked at $3.081 billion on December 14, 2022.
Microsoft meanwhile incorporated OpenAI's technology into its suite of productivity software, a move that helped spark a recovery in its cloud computing business in the July-September quarter.
Its leadership in artificial intelligence has also created an opportunity to challenge Google's dominance in web search.
read also This Magnificent 7 title may surprise (and surpass Apple) Apple, in the meantime, is struggling with tepid demand, even for its flagship product, the iPhone.
Demand in China, a strategic market, has collapsed as the country's economy falters and Huawei's recovery erodes its market share.
Sales of Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset will begin on February 2 in the United States, marking Apple's biggest product launch since the iPhone in 2007.
However, UBS in a report this week estimated that sales of Vision Pro will be rather irrelevant to Apple's earnings per share in 2024.
Analysts on average see the Cupertino giant posting revenue up 0.7% to $117.9 billion for the December quarter.
This would mark its first year-over-year revenue increase in four quarters.
Apple reports its results on February 1.
Experts expect Microsoft to report a 16% increase in revenue to $61.1 billion, supported by continued growth in its cloud business, when it reports in the coming weeks.
Is Microsoft leading a tech revolution? According to an interesting analysis by the New York Times, Microsoft's first place for highest global market value is a turning point that should not be underestimated.
This fact has its own relevance.
For more than a decade, Apple has unrivaledly dominated the stock market.
In 2011, it overtook Exxon Mobil as the world's most valuable public company for the first time and has held the position almost continuously.
The change to the session on Friday 12 January is part of a reorganization of the stock market set in motion by the advent of generative Artificial Intelligence.
The technology, which can answer questions, create images and write code, has been heralded for its potential to disrupt businesses and create trillions of dollars in economic value.
When Apple replaced Exxon, it ushered in an era of technological supremacy.
The values ​​of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Google dwarf former market leaders such as Walmart, JPMorgan Chase and General Motors.
The tech sector is still dominant by value on Wall Street, but companies with the greatest momentum have put generative AI at the forefront of their future business plans.
The combined value of Microsoft, Nvidia and Alphabet, Google's parent company, increased by $2.5 trillion last year.
Their performance outpaced Apple, which saw a smaller increase in stock price in 2023.
also read Artificial Intelligence Stocks: Best Stocks to Buy This is not the first time Microsoft has outperformed Apple in recent years.
It did so in 2018, when its cloud computing business began to thrive, and in 2021, when the pandemic halted iPhone production.
But the current change could be more indicative and incisive.
“The question is, who has the best mousetrap to get to the next level of $3.5 trillion?” said Dan Morgan, portfolio manager and analyst at Synovus Trust.
“It can be argued that Microsoft is in the best position.” The challenge between giants is open: 2024 will be increasingly marked by the weight and evolution of Artificial Intelligence.