Apple's market cap climbed to roughly $4.94 trillion on Monday, pulling ahead of Nvidia's $4.83 trillion
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Apple stock is up more than 22% so far this year, making it the top performer within the Magnificent Seven cohort of large-cap technology stocks. The advance reflects a shift in investor sentiment toward companies with restrained AI spending. "Once criticized for not spending more on AI, they have been able to avoid some of those capex pitfalls," Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, told Yahoo Finance.
Apple's capital expenditures have declined over the past three quarters rather than increased. The picture looks different at Alphabet $GOOGL and Tesla $TSLA, where both companies recently announced higher spending — Alphabet directing more capital toward AI infrastructure and Tesla channeling funds into its robotaxi and robotics ambitions — and where both stocks sold off in the wake of their earnings releases. Alphabet shares have advanced about 3% since January, whereas Tesla has shed roughly 30% over that stretch.
Apple is set to report earnings on Thursday after the closing bell. The key question for investors will be whether Apple can broaden the reach of its Apple Intelligence features across its device lineup while keeping capital spending in check and margins intact. Microsoft $MSFT, Amazon $AMZN, and Meta $META are each due to report results this week, and analysts anticipate all three will signal additional AI spending commitments.
Apple's rise to the top has been driven in part by a broader rotation among technology investors away from companies at the center of the AI infrastructure buildout. Nvidia, which has added roughly 7% this year, had held the top spot on global market-cap rankings since last June, when it overtook Microsoft. Nvidia also became the first company to cross the $5 trillion market capitalization threshold.
Monday's close will also be notable as a leadership milestone. The call will close out Tim Cook's tenure as CEO; he is leaving the role on Sept. 1 to serve as executive chairman, at which point John Ternus, who leads hardware engineering at the company, will assume the chief executive position.
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