On January 11, tech giant Microsoft briefly overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company, reaching a market capitalisation of $2.9 trillion, according to the Financial Times.
Over the past 12 months, Microsoft has experienced a sharp rise in its stock as investors back the company’s achievements in artificial intelligence.
Overall, the firm has invested $13 billion in Sam Altman’s OpenAI project and its chatbot, ChatGPT.
In January 2023, Microsoft struck a deal with the California startup, which media valued at $10 billion. Subsequently, OpenAI’s developments appeared in the tech giant’s products, including GPT-4 in the Bing search engine.
The corporation’s cloud digital infrastructure division has also benefited from renewed business interest in AI.
Meanwhile, Apple has faced investor dissatisfaction due to low iPhone 15 sales in the Chinese market, primarily due to competition from local companies like Huawei.
Apple is also lagging in the artificial intelligence race. Although the firm has its own voice assistant, Siri, it has yet to announce new AI products.
Since the start of the new year, the corporation’s shares have fallen by 4% following a series of downgrades by financial analysts, leading to a reduction in market capitalisation by approximately $100 billion.
Microsoft and Apple have frequently exchanged places in the ranking of the most valuable companies, with Microsoft leading in 2018 and 2021.
Previously, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicted in 2024 that artificial intelligence could make the world “a fairer place.”
In September, the corporation announced the Copilot system, which integrates Windows OS interfaces with language AI models.