Apple is now worth $4,000,000,000,000

CNN
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Apple has just joined an exclusive club: It just became one of the few publicly traded companies to surpass $4 trillion in market value, joining fellow tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft, both of which reached that milestone earlier this year.

Shares of Apple (AAPL) rose 0.1% Tuesday, continuing a sharp rebound, buoyed by strong iPhone 17 sales – including in China, a key market where the company has previously underperformed.

The trend is a reversal of Apple’s fortunes from earlier this year, when the company’s stock tumbled as it navigated a myriad of challenges, from President Donald Trump’s tariffs to AI product delays and pressure to build its smartphones domestically. It lost over $310 billion in market value in one trading day in April.

But the tech juggernaut’s rebound can be taken as a sign that the iPhone is still enough to excite consumers and Wall Street, even as the company falls behind in the AI race. Still, Apple shares are up just over 7% this year, a far cry from the 30.7% gain it saw in 2024, and less than the 17% broader-market gain.

Apple’s new record comes in a blockbuster year for tech stocks as the AI frenzy has sent tech giants soaring to new heights.

That Nvidia, a critical AI chip provider; and Microsoft, a major player in the cloud market, beat Apple to $4 trillion underscores just how important AI has become to Wall Street. Record-breaking valuations have historically been Apple’s territory.

The company in August 2018 became the first publicly traded company to reach a $1 trillion valuation. In August 2020, it became the first $2 trillion company, then crossed the $3 trillion threshold in January 2022 – but didn’t close at that level until June 2023.

Wall Street has been eager to cash in on the technology that some believe could be as foundational as the smartphone or the internet, with AI playing a bigger role in everything from office work to health care and education.

For now, however, the iPhone continues to propel Apple to new heights.

“It’s clear to us that (CEO Tim) Cook & Co. has finally found success with iPhone 17 and now the Street awaits for the grand strategic AI roadmap to be unveiled,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in an Oct. 20 note.