Apple has once again become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company after its shares gained on Monday, pushing its market capitalisation to nearly $4.95 trillion.
The move came as Nvidia, the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker, saw its valuation decline following a sharp fall in its stock price.
Apple shares rose around 1% during the session, while Nvidia shares dropped nearly 5%, bringing Nvidia’s market value down to approximately $4.77 trillion.
The two companies have been competing closely for the top position, with Apple briefly overtaking Nvidia earlier in July before Nvidia regained the lead.
Nvidia had held the top spot for almost a year, driven by strong demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs), which are widely used for training and running artificial intelligence models. The company became the first firm to cross a $5 trillion valuation in October 2025 amid the global AI boom.
However, investor concerns over the scale and funding of AI infrastructure projects have recently weighed on Nvidia’s shares. The decline followed reports that Nvidia was discussing a possible financial guarantee of around $250 billion for an OpenAI data centre project in Ohio.
The proposed arrangement would help the project secure funding, though discussions remain ongoing and terms could change.
Apple’s return to the top has also highlighted the contrast between its approach to artificial intelligence investment and the aggressive spending strategies of other technology giants.
Unlike companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, Apple has maintained relatively lower capital expenditure on data centres and AI infrastructure.
While this cautious approach had earlier raised concerns that Apple was lagging behind in AI development, analysts believe it has helped the company avoid some of the financial pressures associated with large-scale infrastructure investments.
Apple has continued building AI capabilities through its own ecosystem. At its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company introduced a redesigned Siri AI system with improved conversational abilities, personal context features and greater integration with device information.
The company has also expanded its Private Cloud Compute system, allowing complex AI tasks to be processed securely through cloud infrastructure while keeping many functions on-device.
The shift in market rankings reflects changing investor views on AI spending, profitability and long-term technology strategies among the world’s biggest companies.
