As part of the Big Tech rally in the US, Apple has joined the exclusive list of companies touching all-time highs in stock market valuation. On Tuesday, its valuation hit $4 trillion for the first time, becoming one of the few publically-traded companies, along with Nvidia and Microsoft, to have surpassed the value.
Shares of the tech company rose 0.1 per cent on Tuesday, to then decline marginally. The rally has mostly been attributed to strong iPhone 17 sales, including in China, a significant market where the company has now began picking up after previously underperforming. Over the course of this year, Apple’s shares have seen an uptick of over 7 per cent, still less than the 17 per cent broader market-gains, and majorly behind its earlier 30.7 per cent gain seen in 2024.
Despite not yet keeping up in the AI race, Apple has seen historically-high valuations. In August 2018, it became the first publically-traded company to reach $1 trillion in valuation, to then hit $2 trillion in August 2020. In January 2022, it crossed the $3 trillion threshold, but went on a decline soon after.
Wall Street has been cashing in on the AI significance, the reason for Apple’s comeback. It’s valuation now stands at $3.992 trillion.
“It’s clear to us that (CEO Tim) Cook & Co. has finally found success with iPhone 17 and now the Street awaits the grand strategic AI roadmap to be unveiled,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in an October 20 note.
Also Read: Wall Street trades at record high after Apple rally
The latest smartphones, including the iPhone 17 line-up and the iPhone Air, have successfully wooed back customers across the globe, which saw Apple shares gain 13 per cent since the latest launches on September 9. Concerns about how the company will navigate high US tariffs on Asian economies, such as India and China, where Apple has major manufacturing hubs, have been allayed by the high sales.
In similar vein, Nvidia was on the verge of becoming the first company to hit $5 trillion in valuation on Tuesday after the leading chipmaker said it had $500 billion in bookings for its artificial intelligence processors, and that it will build seven new supercomputers for the US Department of Energy.
The company’s stock closed almost 5 per cent higher, adding over $230 billion in market value, bringing the total value to $4.89 trillion after briefly touching $4.94 trillion.
CEO Jensen Huang addressed a developer conference in Washington DC on Tuesday, in which he praised US President Donald Trump, while also announcing new products and deals.
Huang is expected to announce deals in South Korea, where is he currently present, along with Trump. Despite the US-China trade war, and China scaling down Nvidia processors over security concerns, the Santa Clara-based company’s stock has surged 50 per cent in 2025.
Nvidia’s supercomputers for the US Energy Department will be built with Oracle and contain 100,000 of Nvidia’s high-end Blackwell AI chips.
Microsoft, the world’s second most-valuable company, rose 2 per cent, lifting its market capitalisation to $4.03 trillion. Its most recent restructuring deal with OpenAI will further help the ChatGPT maker to move away from its nonprofit roots and go public.
Follow us
