Apple’s major announcement on its generative AI plans have already yielded major results for the company, but its value is still lower than Microsoft which has surged from the AI boom.
Apple’s market capitilisation has grown to a record $3.18trn after its Worldwide Developers Conference announcement yesterday (11 June), which saw the company finally take the plunge into the AI sector.
The tech giant revealed a wave of AI upgrades for its upcoming software releases, with promises of generative AI assistance for its iPhone, iPad and Mac users. The company also announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT across its devices.
Since the announcement, Apple shares have grown by 7pc and grew the company’s value to a new record. This marks a significant comeback for Apple, which was facing a weaker share price earlier this year amid challenges for its product sales.
The company was also pushed further down the list of the world’s most valuable companies recently, as Nvidia managed to surge to a market cap of $3.02trn last week, when Apple’s market cap stood at $2.99trn.
The recent rise in value means Apple has gained more than $200bn on its market value in an extremely short period of time, pushing it back to second place in the global rankings.
However, Apple is still tens of billions short of the current market leader – Microsoft – which has surged in value over the past year thanks to its focus on generative AI.
The Windows giant was one of the early adopters in the AI wave that has taken over the tech sector in recent years, being a key investor in OpenAI and its flagship product, ChatGPT. Various tech giants have jumped onto the AI hype over the past couple of years and have made significant revenue gains as a result.
Nvidia is another key example of a company surging in value thanks to the focus on AI, as it is powering the hardware (including the popular H100 chips) behind some of the world’s leading developers of generative AI. The company reached a valuation of $1trn for the first time last year and crossed the $2trn threshold only months ago.
Apple had been quiet on the AI front until its massive announcement yesterday, but time will tell if it will be able to maintain this momentum and rise back to the top spot – a position Apple held for years until it was bested by Microsoft.
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