Microsoft crosses $3 trillion market cap mark for 1st time in its history

Since the beginning of the year, Microsoft and Apple shares have been competing to be the most capitalised company on Wall Street; earlier in January, the software giant momentarily overthrew the iPhone manufacturer in this regard.  

Microsoft joined Apple on Wednesday as a three trillion dollar company, as its big bet on artificial intelligence continued to impress Wall Street.  Microsoft is now the second-biggest corporation in the world by market capitalization, after Apple. The company's shares were up 1.31 per cent at $404. After initially surpassing the $3 trillion market capitalization threshold in January 2022, Apple is still just marginally ahead of the competition with $3.02 trillion.

But it has fallen below the milestone, even briefly losing the pole position as biggest company on the markets when Microsoft briefly overtook the iPhone maker earlier this month. When it comes to AI, Microsoft is leading the pack in terms of enthusiasm among IT giants. The $13 billion deal between the Redmond, Washington-based company and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is apparently significant.

Following the release of ChatGPT, Microsoft has released a number of products that let businesses and consumers take advantage of generative AI capabilities. These products include the Bing search engine and the Copilot virtual assistant.

Following the early November 2022 debut of ChatGPT, Microsoft's stock has increased by around 67%, while Apple's has increased by roughly 40%. On January 30, Microsoft releases its financial results.

Microsoft has released updated versions of its popular productivity software products and its Bing search engine, which is anticipated to more effectively rival Google's market-dominating search service, using OpenAI's technology.

In contrast, Apple is seeing a decline in the market for its iPhones, especially in China, where it is boosting sales by providing customers with infrequent discounts in the face of fierce competition from domestic rivals like Huawei Technologies. Buoyed by AI optimism, Microsoft shares gained nearly 57% in 2023 and are up 7% this year. Apple's stock rose by 48% last year and is up about 1% year-to-date.