Apple hits $5 trillion; reason is Wall Street is unhappy with Google, Microsoft & others
Apple has reached a $5 trillion market valuation, driven by investor confidence in its capital-efficient AI strategy compared to rivals like Alphabet and Microsoft. While competitors are heavily borrowing to fund massive AI infrastructure spending, Apple is leveraging a hybrid model that maintains strong cash flow.
Why it matters
The shift in investor sentiment highlights a growing concern regarding the debt-fueled AI spending spree among Big Tech companies and the market's preference for fiscal discipline.
Apple shares hit $342.89 on Tuesday, briefly putting the company’s market value at $5.036 trillion. That makes it the second company ever to reach $5 trillion, after Nvidia. The stock closed at $340.08, so the milestone lasted only part of the session. On Monday, Apple had already passed Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable public company again.Apple’s capital expenditure in fiscal 2025 was $12.7 billion. Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta will spend more than $700 billion between them this year, nearly all of it on AI data centres. Twelve months ago that gap was Apple’s biggest problem on Wall Street.
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