Apple’s market capitalization recently surpassed $5 trillion, making it the second company ever to cross that mark. Nvidia is the only other company that had previously reached that milestone. Reports from earlier this month said Apple overtook Nvidia to become the most valuable company.
Its shares were last up 0.2% at $337.7, giving it a market capitalization of $4.96 trillion. At a session high of $342.89, Apple’s market value stood at $5.036 trillion.
Shares of Nvidia fell 5% on Monday, giving the chipmaker a valuation of $4.77 trillion, as AI chip stock in general fell, with investors showing uncertainty due to the high cost of AI buildout.
According to a Reuters report, the iPhone-maker’s achievement comes from a strong demand for its products, as well as a decision to sit out the AI spending race.
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Apple struggled to develop in-house AI, instead relying on Google’s technology for products like a revamped Siri. While the company received some criticism for lagging in the AI race, it seemed to also have managed to avoid the hefty costs that made Big Tech investors wary of the payoff from surging data-center investments.
Apple had also decided to hold iPhone prices steady while it announced increases for MacBooks and iPads. This raised demand as buyers scooped up the company’s flagship device ahead of expected price hikes later this year, analysts have said.
“Apple has resisted the AI spending race, betting that customer experience – not infrastructure investment – will ultimately determine the winners,” said Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
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“The new leasing program is a clever response: it doesn’t reduce the price of an iPhone, but it changes how consumers perceive the cost by replacing sticker shock with a predictable monthly payment.”
So far in 2026, Nvidia’s shares have only climbed 4% while Apple’s are up 24%, according to CNBC. While Nvidia’s sales are now in the third year of massive AI-driven growth, many investors have switched their focus from GPUs to memory chips and other data center infrastructure.
Apple will report fiscal third-quarter earnings on Thursday, in which the company is expected to reveal for the first time some of the financial impacts from the AI-driven global memory chip shortage. This shortage had forced the company to raise Mac and iPad prices in June.