Apple briefly passed Nvidia as the world's most valuable public company on Friday, Oct. 23, reaching a market value of $5.11T against Nvidia's $5.09T, according to Google Finance.
It's the fifth time Apple has taken the crown back from Nvidia. Nvidia has since moved back into the lead. With both companies clustered around $5.1T, a swing of less than 1% is enough to flip the ranking.
Bar chart. Market value ($T). Apple: Market value ($T) $5.1. Nvidia: Market value ($T) $5.1. Microsoft: Market value ($T) $3.9. Alphabet: Market value ($T) $3.9.
The crown has changed hands two dozen times since 2024
Apple closed as the most valuable US-listed company in roughly seven of every 10 sessions since October 2015, per Yahoo Finance calculations.
Microsoft led for stretches, Amazon held the spot for 12 sessions in early 2019, and Alphabet managed exactly one day in 2016.
The AI boom rewrote that leaderboard. Nvidia first closed at No. 1 in June 2024 and has held the position almost continuously since June 2025, apart from a four-session Apple run in late July.
Of Apple's four earlier reclaims, only one stuck, when the DeepSeek scare hit chip stocks in January 2025.
Two different engines
Apple's fiscal third-quarter revenue reached $109.4B, up 16% year over year, with gross margin at 50.1%, helped by about two percentage points from tariff refunds.
Nvidia's fiscal second-quarter revenue was $96.2B, up 106%, with data center revenue climbing 117% to $89B and net income rising 126% to $59.7B.
Apple monetizes an installed base through hardware and services. Nvidia sells the computing infrastructure behind the AI build-out, so its trajectory tracks how long hyperscalers keep committing enormous sums to data centers.
Apple's $1,999 foldable iPhone Duo reached stores globally on Oct. 23, with delivery estimates stretching into late January. Morgan Stanley supply-chain checks point to roughly 6.5M Duo units produced in the second half of 2026.
The International Data Corporation expects Apple to capture 44% of global foldable smartphone market value in 2026 and lead the category in both value and shipments by 2027.
"Apple has made a convincing case for this form factor."
Francisco Jeronimo, IDC
Traders still expect Nvidia to finish October as the world's largest company, though that view weakened after the Oct. 22 AI-led selloff.
Microsoft and Alphabet, each worth roughly $3.9T, report results on Wednesday, giving the market a fresh read on AI spending.
