Apple has change into solely the second firm to go the $5tn valuation mark, because it benefited from traders fleeing AI and semiconductor shares amid a wider tech sell-off.
The iPhone maker’s shares hit a session excessive of $342.89 on Tuesday, giving it a market capitalisation of $5.04tn (£3.78tn), then eased again down to $340.08 – round the $5tn mark.
Apple became the world’s most valuable company earlier this month, overtaking the chip big Nvidia, which had been at the prime since June 2025 and have become the first company to breach the $5tn threshold final October.
The US client electronics firm’s rally has been pushed as a lot by robust demand for its merchandise as its choice to sit out the AI spending race that is sapping money flows at large tech rivals.
Its recent excessive valuation got here amid an intensifying sell-off of AI stocks around the world pushed by rising considerations about AI corporations’ borrowing to fund datacentre growth.
US chip shares prolonged their current losses when Wall Avenue opened on Tuesday, with Intel, Superior Micro Gadgets, Sandisk, Western Digital and Seagate Know-how all down by greater than 4%.
The Nasdaq 100 index of main tech shares fell by as a lot as 1.8% at one level, that means since its early June file excessive it had fallen greater than 10% – the technical definition of a market correction.
In the meantime South Korea’s inventory market slid to its lowest stage since mid-April, with semiconductor corporations SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics falling by greater than 10%.
Analysts attributed the sell-off to renewed worries over AI funding spending, and competitors from cheaper Chinese language corporations, after a report by the Information that China had begun mass manufacturing of homegrown deep ultraviolet (DUV) chip-making instruments.
Buyers may additionally be rising jittery about the “circular funding” at the heart of the AI industry, via which synthetic intelligence corporations finance each other.
They’ve additionally been spooked by the announcement from Google final week that it was additional growing capital spending this yr to as a lot as $205bn to fund its AI plans, whereas reporting destructive free cashflow for the first time in its historical past, burning via $5.9bn in the three months to the finish of June.
Apple has been shielded considerably by being one thing of an AI laggard. Its difficulties in growing in-house fashions meant it has as an alternative relied on Google’s expertise to energy new providers akin to a revamped Siri. That has spared it the hefty infrastructure prices which have left large tech traders cautious.
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Apple’s choice to maintain iPhone costs regular final month when it introduced increases for MacBooks and iPads has additionally bolstered demand as patrons scooped up the firm’s flagship gadget before anticipated worth hikes later this yr, analysts have stated.
To assist demand, Apple on Tuesday additionally launched a tool leasing programme in the US via the funds agency Klarna, beneath which month-to-month funds begin at $17.99 for an iPhone, $11.99 for an Apple Watch or iPad, and $24.99 for a Mac.
“Apple has resisted the AI spending race, betting that buyer expertise – not infrastructure funding – will finally decide the winners,” stated Dipanjan Chatterjee, a vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester. “The new leasing programme is a intelligent response: it doesn’t cut back the worth of an iPhone, however it adjustments how customers understand the value by changing sticker shock with a predictable month-to-month fee.”
Together with session features, Apple inventory has jumped 24% to date this yr, extensively outperforming the different six of the “Magnificent Seven” cohort of US expertise shares.
Apple is to report its third-quarter earnings after the market shut on Thursday, with analysts anticipating a greater than 15% bounce in income for the interval in contrast with a yr earlier.
Reuters contributed to this report
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