As part of another adventure in numbers incomprehensible to the human mind, Microsoft has gained the upper hand in its rivalry with Apple, attaining a market value of $2.87 trillion and becoming the most valuable company on the planet.
As reported by the Financial Times, Microsoft nosed ahead of Apple earlier today, on the back of a 1% increase in its share value. Apple’s, meanwhile, dropped 1%, leaving Steve Jobs’ baby with a market cap fully $4 billion lower than Microsoft’s. Apple’s market cap stood at $2.871 trillion, Microsoft’s at $2.875 trillion.
A pittance! Apple will, no doubt, regain its lead at some point in the weeks, days, or hours to come. The two companies have already swapped spots several times today. What’s interesting here, though, is the reason for Redmond’s sudden lead. You guessed it, folks, it’s AI.
Apple has largely kept its beak out of the ongoing AI gold rush—although it’s certainly paying attention and doubtless has big plans—while Microsoft is a massive investor in OpenAI and seems determined to cram the tech into everything from Bing to your actual, physical keyboard.
Investors rather like that…