Apple overtakes Nvidia as the world's most valuable company

6:52 AM · July 17, 2026

Apple overtook Nvidia to become the world's most valuable company, according to CNBC, closing with a market capitalization of about 4.88 trillion dollars against Nvidia's roughly 4.86 trillion dollars after Nvidia shares slipped 3.5 percent. Nvidia had held the title of world's most valuable company since June 2025, when it surpassed Microsoft, making the shift a notable changing of the guard atop global markets rather than a routine daily fluctuation. Apple shares have surged 22 percent this year, outperforming the broader market as investors reward the company's AI agenda and its comparatively light capital spending model at a moment when other technology giants are committing unprecedented sums to AI infrastructure. The shift reflects a broader change in investor sentiment around the AI trade, with Wall Street growing less certain about the pace and payoff of heavy AI infrastructure spending even as it continues to reward companies seen as capturing AI's benefits without shouldering its heaviest costs. The reversal, coming on the same day as a broader chip stock selloff tied to TSMC's results, underscores how unsettled investors currently are about which companies are genuinely winning from the AI buildout and which are simply spending the most to compete in it.