Microsoft goes head-to-head with Apple for who is worth more on Wall Street

It's a day on the razor's edge for the stocks of Microsoft and Apple, protagonists of a battle to the last billion to vie for the Wall Street crown. Not since the dark months of the pandemic have the capitalisations of the two companies been so close as to alternate in the intraday market. In these hours, however, Microsoft has overtaken Apple after a very long domination. The Redmond giant's shares rose 1.5% in the first hours of trading, bringing the company's market cap to $2.888 billion. While Apple's shares lost about one percentage point at the same time, with the capitalisation at just under USD 2,870 billion. This reversed several times during the session.

An incredible story, this, for technology enthusiasts. Because the two companies have been fighting each other for years. They've been feuding since the 1980s, when the company founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak accused the Windows maker, Bill Gates, of stealing the "look and feel" of Macintosh computer software. Apple lost a copyright case against Windows in the early 1990s, paving the way for Microsoft to dominate the PC market for decades.

In the stock market, however, the queen has been Apple for a few years now, the only company to have already surpassed the 3 trillion dollar capitalisation ceiling. Gthanks to the success of the iPhone, Apple's market value surpassed Microsoft's in 2010, and since then the Cupertino-based company has always remained ahead, except for brief periods of turnover (the last during the pandemic).

This time, Microsoft is going for it on a firmer footing. Because it has invested better and earlier on generative AI (13 billion to become a partner of OpenAI). While Apple pays for having remained too tied to iPhone sales. The same sales that have given it stability and wealth for over a decade. And that will continue to do so. But in 2024 the market is betting heavily on AI. And Microsoft's leadership this time may not be episodic.   .