Apple Briefly Tops Nvidia as World's Most Valuable Company on iPhone Duo Launch Day

AAPL briefly overtook NVDA as the world's most valuable listed company on Friday, October 23. Apple shares rose 0.4% to a record $349.55 in early trading, a market value of about $5.101 trillion on 14.59 billion shares by Seeking Alpha's calculation, and later traded above $351, an intraday record that put Apple at around $5.12 trillion, per 9to5Mac. Stocktwits, citing Google Finance, had Apple at $5.11 trillion against Nvidia's $5.09 trillion at one point in the session.

The setup came from Thursday's AI selloff. Apple closed Thursday at a record $348.22, up 1.23%, worth $5.082 trillion and just $42 billion behind Nvidia at $5.124 trillion after Nvidia fell 4.40% to $212.21. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.60%, its steepest fall since early June, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index lost 6.7%, after Meta reported negative free cash flow for the first time since 2012 on heavy AI spending. Over the past month Nvidia is down 7.3% while Apple is up 2.5%. Apple last closed above Nvidia on July 27.

The flip landed on launch day for the $1,999 iPhone Duo foldable. 24/7 Wall St reported that online configurations sold out in minutes, with deliveries now showing January 25, while Yahoo Finance noted that tough reviews had not shaken the bulls. Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives argued that roughly 375 million iPhones not upgraded in over 4 years leave a deep pool of buyers into 2027. The coverage pairs the record with the launch but does not show the launch caused it: Nvidia's 4.40% drop on Thursday did far more to close the gap than Apple's 1.23% gain.

The lead did not hold. As of 1:23 p.m. ET, Apple was down 0.7% at $345.91 and Nvidia near flat at $211.79, which on the share counts implied by the coverage puts Nvidia back ahead by roughly $67 billion. With Apple trading at about 45x earnings, its November 2 results are the next test of whether Duo demand can turn an intraday flip into a lasting lead.