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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Apple hit a $4tn valuation for the first time on Tuesday, joining Microsoft and Nvidia in surpassing the stock market milestone for the first time this year.
A move of less than 1 per cent in Apple’s shares as trading in New York began on Tuesday was enough to push its market capitalisation over $4tn, making it the third public company ever to surpass the threshold. The group’s valuation slipped back below the mark during afternoon trading as its share price gain moderated.
US chipmaker Nvidia rode the artificial intelligence boom to become the first public group ever to hit a $4tn market capitalisation in July. It is now worth $4.7tn amid renewed AI fervour on Wall Street.
Microsoft briefly touched the $4tn mark later that month after reporting strong fourth-quarter earnings. Its shares had since fallen back but Tuesday’s news of OpenAI’s corporate restructuring, valuing Microsoft’s 27 per cent stake at roughly $135bn, pushed the Big Tech group to a new high of about $4.1tn.
Apple’s share price is up 28 per cent over the past six months, despite fears that it was falling behind in AI.
The strong debut of the latest iPhone has rebuilt confidence in the US tech giant in recent months, as the smartphone’s biggest redesign for several years prompted more of its loyal customer base to upgrade than analysts had initially expected.
Investors also seem to have shaken off their earlier concerns that chief executive Tim Cook and his team were lagging behind in AI, after it delayed the launch of an upgrade to its virtual assistant Siri.
Apple’s highly profitable services business, meanwhile, is forecast to surpass $100bn in annual revenues for the first time when the company reports its latest earnings on Thursday.
