Apple is the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a $3 trillion market value. The company’s shares climbed about 2.31% on Friday to a new high. The tech giant first reached a $3 trillion market cap back in January 2022, but failed to close at that level.
Apple’s stock has skyrocketed nearly 46% this year. The company’s stock market success this year is a stark contrast from 2022. Earlier this year, Apple’s market cap fell below $2 trillion in trading for the first time since early 2021.
The milestone valuation for the tech giant comes on the heels of its launch of the Apple Vision Pro, its long-rumored augmented reality (AR) headset, earlier this month. The $3,499 headset, which requires users to stay connected to a battery pack the size of an iPhone, will go on sale next year.
Wall Street and Silicon Valley have been all in on the AI hype that sparked with the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022. Since then, companies like Microsoft, Google, Nvidia and Meta have jumped on the AI bandwagon. Nvidia leads the S&P 500 with a 181% jump this year. Meta follows with a 137% jump. Apple has largely stayed away from mentions of AI, while its competitors have gone all in on the emerging technology.
It’s worth noting that four other U.S. companies have a valuation of more than $1 trillion, including Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia.
Apple posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings in May, even though the tech giant’s sales and profit declined. The company’s results reinforced its reputation among investors.
Update 30/06/2023 4:00 PM ET: Article was updated to note that Apple closed above a $3 trillion market cap.
Source @TechCrunch
