Microsoft outranks Apple to become world’s most valuable company

Microsoft has upstaged the iphonemaker, Apple to become the world’s biggest company by market value. The surge in the realm of artificial intelligence brought a new twist to the rivalry between the two Big Tech groups.

Hyderabad:Tech giant Microsoft dethroned Apple to become the world’s most valuable stock on Thursday, as the boom in artificial intelligence brought a new twist to the decades-long rivalry between the two Big Tech groups.

The software company’s shares climbed around 1 percent in early trading to take its market value to $2.87 trillion, just ahead of the iPhone maker, whose stock stood at $184.76 per share, down 0.77 percent. As morning trading in New York continued, the pair exchanged the top spot several times.

Why is Microsoft's stock rising?Investors’ excitement about the new wave of generative AI has fuelled a rally in the shares of Microsoft, which is the biggest backer of OpenAI, the maker of the popular AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, Financial Times reported.

Microsoft’s stock saw a noticeable rise as it announced a steep price on Copilot for Microsoft 365, the Artificial Intelligence powered future of Office documents. The tech giant has been constantly announcing new AI features or changes to its software and services.

Why is Apple's stock dipping?Apple has largely been left out of the AI fervour that has propelled Microsoft, which is OpenAI’s largest backer and cloud hosting provider as well as a pioneer in deploying AI chatbots across its search and workplace products.

At the same time, concerns about weaker iPhone sales, particularly in China, have weighed on Apple’s stock in the first few days of 2024, prompting a series of Wall Street analyst downgrades.

Apple’s stock witnessed a decline every quarter from the end of 2022, Forbes reported. Apple’s revenues were also hit by a decline in sales in China, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Apple-Microsoft rivalry:Apple and Microsoft have been rivals since the 1980s when the company founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak accused Bill Gates’ Windows maker of stealing the “look and feel” of its Macintosh computer software. Apple lost a high-profile copyright lawsuit targeting Windows in the early 1990s, clearing the way for Microsoft to dominate the PC market for decades.(with IANS inputs)

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