Friday night, a new stock was crowned the world's most valuable listed company.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) overtook Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to reclaim its spot as the world's most valuable company by market capitalisation.
This followed Microsoft's better-than-expected third quarter earnings report.
Last week, Microsoft reported that it had delivered 13% revenue growth. This was driven by double-digit growth across several segments, including cloud services revenue, consumer products and intelligent cloud (including Azure). Microsoft is the best performing Magnificent 7 stock this year, having risen 4%. It's also the only Magnificent 7 stock in positive territory for the year (at the time of writing).
By comparison, Apple has had a challenging start to the year, facing significant tariff headwinds. The iPhone maker has been one of the most talked about stocks on Wall Street. Last week, Apple reported 5% quarterly growth, beating analyst estimates. However, the stock has drifted materially lower this year, down 16% at the time of writing.
The three-way rivalry continues
Over the past couple of years, three companies have been in a tight battle for the world's most valuable listed company.
That is Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). At the time of writing, their market capitalisations are US$3.24 trillion, US$3.08 trillion and US$2.79 trillion, respectively.
Nvidia last held the top spot on 21 January 2025. However, since then, the chip maker has faced a range of challenges. In February, Nvidia's share price fell nearly 20% when Chinese startup company DeepSeek arrived on the scene. More recently, Nvidia discovered that it will now require a special license to ship its H20 graphic processing units or related hardware to China. The H20 GPU had been specifically designed to comply with export rules introduced during the Biden Administration. Its shares fell 7% on the announcement.
Nvidia will report its earnings at the end of this month. If past quarters are anything to go by, it will be one of the most closely followed reports of the month.
While Apple has faced troubles lately, its long-term track record is enviable. Over the weekend, at Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B) annual general meeting, Warren Buffett praised Apple CEO Tim Cook's leadership. Despite significantly reducing its stake in 2024, Apple remains one of the top five holdings in Berkshire's portfolio.
For now, Microsoft appears to be the most resilient of the three companies so far this year. However, with conditions constantly changing and their market capitalisations in such close proximity, which company will end the year on top is anyone's guess.
