Apple overtakes Nvidia as world's most valuable company

Apple retakes the top market-cap position

Apple moved back ahead of Nvidia on Monday to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company, with its market capitalisation climbing to about $4.95 trillion after a roughly 1 percent rise in its share price. Nvidia's market value slipped to around $4.77 trillion as its shares fell nearly 5 percent, widening what had been a closely contested race between the two companies this month. Apple had briefly edged ahead on July 17, when the firms were valued at $4.88 trillion and $4.86 trillion, respectively. Nvidia had held the top position for nearly a year and became the first company to cross a $5 trillion valuation in October 2025.

Investor view of Apple's restrained AI spending

Investors have increasingly treated Apple's lower capital expenditure as a relative strength, in contrast with rivals committing tens of billions of dollars to new AI infrastructure. Apple's capital expenditure has declined over the past three quarters even as it continues to expand its Apple Intelligence platform. The iPhone maker introduced a redesigned Siri AI with conversational capabilities and personal-context features at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, following repeated delays to AI features first outlined in 2024. Apple has said its AI system processes some tasks on its devices, while more complex requests are handled through Private Cloud Compute, which the company expanded beyond its own data centres in June.

Nvidia's pullback and the OpenAI financing scrutiny

Nvidia's roughly 5 percent decline came amid renewed scrutiny of the scale and financing of AI infrastructure projects. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia was in talks to provide a roughly $250 billion financial guarantee for an OpenAI data-centre project in Ohio. Sources attributed Nvidia's slide to spending concerns tied to such projects rather than to any single piece of company-specific news.

Earnings call and leadership transition on the horizon

Apple is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results after US markets close on Thursday, July 30, with an investor call at 5 pm Eastern Time. The release will be the company's first quarterly update since it unveiled the redesigned Siri and the latest Apple Intelligence features in June. Apple reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $111.2 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier, with diluted earnings per share of $2.01, up 22 percent; iPhone revenue reached a March-quarter record and services revenue touched an all-time high. The call will also mark Tim Cook's last as chief executive before he becomes executive chairman on September 1, with hardware chief John Ternus expected to take over as CEO. Investors will be looking for guidance on whether Apple can scale Apple Intelligence without a large jump in capital spending or pressure on operating margins.