Last Thursday, June 13, Apple became the most valuable public company in the United States, displacing Microsoft from the corresponding position.
The mentioned technology giant, based in Cupertino, California, and famous for its iPhone smartphones and MacBook laptops, has significantly improved its financial performance in the market after the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which took place this week. At the specified event, the company announced the introduction of artificial intelligence functions into its devices. Against the background of these statements, the share price of the technology giant began to rise. In fact, at the conference, Apple stated the beginning of its participation in the so-called artificial intelligence race. The mentioned process, in which the iPhone developer has become a player, is what can be described as a global technological tendency, which has a significant economic volume and equally significant prospects for financial effect. For investors, the developer conference was a signal that Apple is ready to overcome its certain lag behind competitors in the artificial intelligence industry and become one of the beneficiaries of the rapid evolution of AI. Currently, the area of machine intelligence is a large-scale space of possibilities, which contains the potential for technological transformation of the current configuration of the material and applied dimension of the existence of human civilization with the probability of a significant impact on cultural processes and constants, since the emergence of a new form of mind also has a certain philosophical component with as yet an unknown scale.
On Thursday, Apple’s market capitalization was fixed at around $3.29 trillion. Shares of the technology giant rose 0.6% on the same day. Since the beginning of the current week, the value of the company’s securities has increased by 8.8%. At the same time, Microsoft’s market capitalization is at around $3.28 trillion. On Thursday, the share price of this technology giant showed a minimal increase of 0.1%.
Apple is currently regaining its financial position. Recent months have been a difficult period for the technology giant from the point of view of the mentioned parameter. The company has faced a drop in sales of its smartphones in China, one of the world’s largest markets, amid increased competition from local manufacturers. The technology giant also found itself at the center of an investigation by European regulators, which ended in a fine for it. Such episodes in the history of the existence of large companies, as a rule, are not some kind of critical turning point that weakens the prospects for future development, but these cases definitely do not belong to the category of favorable circumstances. Moreover, a technology giant has become the subject of intense scrutiny from regulators in the United States.
Also, the pressure factor on what can be described as Apple’s financial condition was its already-mentioned lag in the artificial intelligence industry. Investors feared that the combination of negative factors would generate an increasingly powerful inimical cumulative effect. Also, the source of pressure on the financial condition of the company was the uncertainty about what exactly would be presented and announced at WWDC.
Last week, Apple’s market capitalization was about $2.99 trillion. Also last week, Nvidia overtook the iPhone developer in the ranking of the most valuable companies, taking second place in the corresponding list. The market capitalization indicator of the world’s main vendor of chips for artificial intelligence systems has exceeded the significant mark of $3 trillion. After WWDC, Apple was able not only to regain its lost position but also to improve its situation in the market. It is worth noting that the company has something like a traditional business practice, in which the brand is not the first to master new product categories, but then achieves significant and, in a sense, advanced progress in the relevant segments. An example of this approach by Apple is, among other things, the iPhone, which was not the first smartphone in the world, but eventually became one of the most popular devices in its class, demonstrating something like reference characteristics, and even transforming into a kind of symbol of the era, making up a list of attributes of the present historical period, forming what can be to call the brand image of the epoch.
Microsoft is currently the second most valuable company. Nvidia is on the third line in the corresponding rating. It is worth noting that this alignment of forces may change in the short term. For example, Nvidia continues its development as the main vendor of chips for artificial intelligence systems. The relevant products remain in high demand against the background of the rapid evolution and scaling of machine intelligence models and various digital products based on this advanced technology. This means that Nvidia’s prospects are positive. Microsoft is also active concerning projects related to artificial intelligence, which creates a favorable potential for the technology giant, including in the context of the financial aspect of its operations.
This week, Apple announced the beginning of cooperation with OpenAI, which has developed the world’s most popular chatbot based on machine intelligence called ChatGPT. As a result of this partnership, the functionality of the iPhone will be expanded. The new collaboration is also likely to be a positive boost for Apple, although the company has already faced trust issues because interaction with OpenAI involves the transfer of user data. Potentially, the mentioned circumstance may cause certain privacy problems. For Apple, the specified probability is particularly sensitive, since its corporate ideology defines user safety and anonymity as primary values.
At the same time, the active integration of artificial intelligence can boost the rapid growth of iPhone sales and services in the long term. Recently, the length of the time interval between device update cycles has increased in the consumer community. This state of affairs was formed against the background of such a fact of the current world reality as global uncertainty, which has become a particularly sensitive factor affecting the situation in the Chinese market.
The rapid rise in Apple’s share prices after the technology giant officially announced its participation in the artificial intelligence race reflects a very remarkable feature of modern times. In this case, it means focusing global attention on AI and everything related to digital thinking systems and the virtual generating of arrays of information. The very fact of striving to carry out activities in the artificial intelligence industry already increases the potential of the company and its perception in the public space. The example demonstrated by Apple this week indicates that the financial condition of the brand has increased due to its involvement in the area of machine intelligence even before a specific result has been demonstrated in the relevant operating area.
