Apple Intelligence and iOS 18 announcements see AAPL surge above Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company

The iPhone 15 lineup at the Apple Store in Nanjing East, Shanghai, China.
(Image credit: Apple)

After briefly being replaced by Nvidia as the second most valuable company on the planet, Apple has now taken the top spot after a share price surge following its WWDC announcements this week.

The WWDC event saw Apple announce iOS 18 as well as software for the iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. But it's the launch of Apple Intelligence that has everyone talking.

Now, it appears that Apple Intelligence may have been enough to put Apple back on top of the world after it overtook Microsoft as the world's most valuable company.

$$$

Reuters notes that Apple's share price jumped almost 4% to a record $215.04 which in turn gave it a market capitalization of $3.29 trillion. Microsoft's own market cap comes in at $3.24 trillion, although we can surely expect more fluctuations in the coming days and weeks.

Apple was thought to have fallen behind in the new AI world but the unveiling of Apple Intelligence appears to have been enough to get the market back onside. Apple Intelligence is a collection of AI-powered features that will change the way people use their iPhones, iPads, and Macs including upgrades to Siri and more.

None of these new features will be available until this fall and even then, Apple intends to label Apple Intelligence as a beta. The initial launch will also be limited to those who use the U.S. English language although more languages will come online in the months following the initial launch, we're told.

iPhone 15 Pro | $999 at Apple

iPhone 15 Pro | $999 at Apple

Apple's best iPhone sports the superfast A17 Pro chip and is Apple Intelligence-ready. It also comes with USB-C charging rather than Lightning as well as support for Qi2 wireless charging, too.

More from iMore

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.