Apple has reclaimed its position as the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, overtaking Nvidia as a sharp rally in its shares coincided with a pullback in semiconductor stocks.
Apple’s market capitalization climbed to about $4.9 trillion on Friday, pushing it ahead of Nvidia after weeks of narrowing gap between the two companies. The move marks Apple’s return to the top of the global market-cap rankings, a spot it had previously ceded to Nvidia amid a powerful rally in AI hardware names.
The latest advance in Apple’s stock has been closely tied to progress on its artificial intelligence strategy, particularly in China. China’s top cyberspace regulator this week confirmed that Apple’s Apple Intelligence service has completed the required registration process, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for the company in one of its most important markets. Under the approved structure, Apple Intelligence in China will run on Alibaba’s Qwen model for language AI, with Baidu providing visual intelligence and search capabilities. The authorization does not specify a consumer launch date, but it removes a major overhang that had limited Apple’s ability to roll out its flagship AI features to Chinese users.
Investor sentiment toward Apple has strengthened as the China approval bolsters confidence that its AI roadmap can extend beyond Western markets. Analysts and industry watchers view regulatory clearance as a prerequisite for Apple to integrate AI more deeply across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for Chinese consumers, even though the timing of product availability remains uncertain.
Nvidia, which had surged ahead of Apple on the back of surging demand for AI chips, has come under pressure as part of a broader rotation within the semiconductor sector. Recent sessions have seen profit-taking in AI hardware names and renewed focus on memory-chip suppliers, with SK Hynix and Micron drawing investor attention around expectations for a high-bandwidth memory “supercycle.” While Nvidia remains central to AI infrastructure spending, the latest pullback in its shares, combined with Apple’s AI-driven rally, has shifted the market’s leadership back to the iPhone maker.
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