Microsoft Overtook Apple as World’s Most Valuable Company

For a brief time on Monday, Microsoft surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.

At one point in open trading today, Microsoft’s market capitalization was $812.93 billion. At the same time, Apple’s market cap fell to $812.60 billion, Bloomberg reported.

The numbers continued to fluctuate all day. However, that short period marks the first time in eight years that Microsoft was worth more than Apple based on market cap. It’s also the first time since 2013 that any company surpassed Apple by the same metric.

But, as of the writing of this article, Apple regained its number-one position on Monday with a closing market cap of $828.64 billion. Microsoft ranked in at $817.29 billion at close.

Earlier this year, Apple made headlines by becoming the world’s first — and only — publicly traded company worth more than $1 trillion. The Cupertino tech giant has since lost that milestone as AAPL shares fell in price, and its market cap declined a result.

Partly, that decline could be attributed to concerns over weak iPhone sales and Apple’s surprise announcement that it would no longer report individual unit sales for its iPhone, iPad and Mac lineup — a change that worried investors.

This week, several reports indicated that Apple was lowering iPhone XR prices in Japan, restarting iPhone X production in certain markets, and cut production orders for the iPhone XS and iPhone XR handsets.

Microsoft is an outlier as one of the few technology firms to grow in value since its last earnings call. Over the last couple of months, tech stocks have seen a slump after an unusually long bull market, according to the New York Times. Facebook, Amazon and Apple have seen their shares drop by nearly 20 percent.

While Apple’s iPhone sales have some market watchers concerned, others have pointed out that the company is in a transition period to a services-based business model.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty has long forecasted that Apple’s Services sector would overtake the iPhone as the company’s key driver of revenue growth.

Still, Microsoft’s expanding cloud and PC businesses have allowed the company to catch up to Apple — adding a tense new chapter to one of the most legendary rivalries in Silicon Valley.