Microsoft
on Thursday (January 11) briefly overtook
Apple
as the world’s most valuable publicly listed company. The iPhone maker did not have a good start in 2024 as a number of factors affected its market capitalisation. Notably, this is not the first time that Apple has been overtaken by other tech giants in terms of market cap. Here are four instances when either Microsoft or
surpassed Apple.
Notably, Apple was the first publicly listed company to reach a $1 trillion market cap. The iPhone maker has held on to the top spot for a long time now, with some minor hiccups once in a blue moon. Microsoft and Apple have been trading back and forth for the title.
The Redmond, Washington-based company surpassed Apple’s market cap in 2021, 2020 and 2018, however, the Tim Cook-led company regained its place at the top. Google also blazed past Apple in 2016 but it was also short lived.
Microsoft surpassed Apple in 2021
In October 2021, Microsoft became the world’s most valuable public company when Apple announced in its earnings that it lost $6 billion to supply chain constraints. Microsoft had also shared positive earnings boosted by Office, Windows and its cloud products. At that time, Microsoft’s market cap was almost $2.49 trillion while Apple’s was about $2.46 trillion.
Covid-19 helped Microsoft ‘beat’ Apple in 2020
Microsoft topped Apple in market cap in July 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on supply chains. At the time, shares of the Satya Nadella-led company suffered a lesser decline than Apple did.
Microsoft ‘betters’ Apple market cap in 2018
In 2018, it was the first time in 8 years that the Windows maker surpassed Apple’s market cap. Microsoft briefly reached a market cap value of $812.93 billion, followed by Apple at a market cap of $812.60 billion. Apple surpassed Microsoft in 2010, which The New York Times described as “the end of an era and the beginning of the next one.”
Google parent Alphabet became top company in 2016
Google parent company Alphabet passed Apple as the
world’s most valuable company
in 2016 with the Pixel phone maker registering a market cap of about $570 billion vs Apple's $539 billion.
