Microsoft overtakes Apple as the company with the highest stock market value in the world. economy

This Thursday, Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world. Its rise in the stock market and the decline of Apple, which until recently was the undisputed leader, is enough to give the company founded by Bill Gates and directed by Satya Nadella the world throne by market capitalization, which in comparison totals $2,875 billion. Its rival’s Rs 2,871 billion. Microsoft has been closing the gap with Apple until it surpasses it due to the success of its commitment to artificial intelligence with OpenAI. This is also associated with good development of its other businesses. However, just a few minutes later, Apple recovered and moved ahead of Microsoft again. The two companies are almost identical at $2.9 billion (2.65 billion euros).

Apple, founded in 1976, and Microsoft, founded in 1975, have been historical rivals since they were founded by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, respectively. Apple accused Microsoft of copying the style of its computers with its drop-down menus and ease of use. The computer world was divided between the two. Apple lagged behind for a long time and went through a serious crisis. However, with the return of Steve Jobs and the launch of the pioneering iPhone, it overtook Microsoft in terms of share market value in 2010. It continues almost uninterrupted. There were several occasions during the pandemic when Microsoft overtook Apple, the last being in 2021, but the Tim Cook-led company quickly took first place in them all.

Microsoft is leading the race in generative artificial intelligence with OpenAI. He benefited from his deal with the company run by Sam Altman and whose board he had joined as a supervisor. Microsoft is the main shareholder of OpenAI’s commercial subsidiary, although its structure as a non-profit organization complicates the group’s governance. In any case, Microsoft is incorporating available advances in artificial intelligence into its products and services as well as providing large-scale cloud computing services tied to the enormous computing demands of the new technology.

On the other hand, the weakness in Apple shares comes after it downgraded analysts’ ratings, raising fears that sales of the iPhone, its most profitable product, will remain weak, especially in China, its main market. Apple also sees its services business under threat due to a potential abuse of monopoly lawsuit against Google, threatening its lucrative agreement to give it priority as the default search engine for its mobile phones, tablets and computers. Can be broken.

Microsoft started its 2023/204 fiscal year with a great quarter. The company’s revenue and profits between July and September increased compared to the same period last year, thanks to its cloud computing business, which has become a driver of revenue. The technology company increased its turnover by 13% to $56,517 million (about 53,350 million euros at the current exchange rate). For their part, profits rose 27% to a record $22,291 million, well above analysts’ forecasts.

After Microsoft and Apple, the next most valuable private companies in the world are also American technology companies. Third is Google, with $1.8 billion; This was followed by Amazon with $1.6 billion and microprocessor designer Nvidia with $1.35 billion, another big winner in the artificial intelligence race.

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