Apple reclaims title as most valuable U.S. public company ahead of Nvidia

Apple briefly moved ahead of Nvidia on Friday to become the world’s most valuable public company after its shares touched a record $334.95, lifting its valuation above $4.92 trillion. Nvidia, whose shares fell 4% from Thursday’s close to $199.38 early in the session, dropped to about $4.83 trillion before reclaiming the top spot by 10:30 a.m. in New York at roughly $4.94 trillion. Apple’s turn at the top lasted about 50 minutes. The shift was driven more by Nvidia’s pullback than by a sharp move higher in Apple, whose shares were little changed in morning trading. Apple had also held the top spot in April 2025, while Nvidia has led for most of the past year and became the first company worth $4 trillion last July and the first to pass $5 trillion in October. The reversal comes amid a broader rotation away from some of the market’s biggest AI spenders and toward companies seen as less exposed to heavy capital expenditure. Apple entered Friday up 22% this year versus Nvidia’s 7%, while HSBC upgraded Apple to buy with a $366 price target, citing capital expenditure equal to 2.5% of sales compared with 39% for hyperscalers. Apple also cleared a registration hurdle for its AI suite with Beijing’s internet regulator this week, opening a key market. Nvidia’s shares have been under pressure since peaking in mid-May and the company has shed more than $800 billion in market value since then, even as its business remains central to AI buildouts. On Thursday, Nvidia announced 27,500 Rubin GPUs for Japan in what it called the world’s first national AI infrastructure for physical AI, backed by a Tokyo sovereign ministry. Benjamin Hall of Segal Marco Advisors told Reuters he saw no meaningful distinction between the two companies’ positions, adding that Nvidia is likely to remain a significant participant in what comes next.