(Reuters) – Apple again became the world’s most valuable company on Wednesday, dethroning Microsoft (NASDAQ:) from the top spot as the iPhone maker advanced in the race to dominate artificial intelligence technology.
Its shares rose more than 2% to $211.75, giving the company a market value of $3.25 trillion. Microsoft’s market capitalization was $3.24 trillion, trailing Apple for the first time in five months.
Apple (NASDAQ:) shares rose to a record high in the previous session, a day after the company introduced a number of artificial intelligence-enabled features and software enhancements for its devices. According to some analysts, this move will boost iPhone sales.
At Apple’s annual developer conference on Monday, executives including CEO Tim Cook outlined how Siri’s voice assistant will be able to interact with messages, email, calendar, and third-party apps.
The tech giant is lagging behind rivals like Microsoft and Google-owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:) in the hot field of artificial intelligence, which is the reason its stock has underperformed its peers this year.
Apple shares are up about 10% so far in 2024, while Microsoft shares are up about 16% and Alphabet is up nearly 28%.
Some concerns about the company’s weak stock performance eased after Apple beat market expectations on quarterly results and guidance in May and unveiled a record $110 billion share buyback plan.
AI chip leader Nvidia (NASDAQ:), which briefly overtook Apple in market value last week, is up a whopping 144% this year. Nvidia last had a market value of $3.06 trillion.
Tesla (NASDAQ:) is the only Magnificent Seven stock to perform worse than Apple this year, down more than 30%.