Apple takes back Wall Street's top spot from Nvidia

Apple (AAPL) takes back the Wall Street crown from Nvidia – for the fifth time.

Apple briefly overtook Nvidia in market value on Friday. This is a decision Apple has made before, and it has rarely lasted.

347.94 -0.28 (-0.08%)

At 11:22:22 a.m. EDT. Open market.

AAPL NVDA

Apple and Nvidia (NVDA) are each worth about $5.1 trillion, and the gap between them was less than 1% as of Thursday’s close. The turnaround came alongside a record run for Apple shares and the day the tech giant’s $1,999 iPhone Duo hit stores, capping a battle that investors had been watching all morning. Nvidia has since returned to the lead.

Line chart of Apple and Nvidia stock values since October 2015, with shading for the most valuable US-listed company at each close. Apple dominated for most of the period, while Nvidia went from almost nothing to around $5.1 trillion and has held the top spot almost every session since mid-2025. — Yahoo Finance

For most of the last decade, it wasn’t much of a competition. Apple has closed as the most valuable U.S.-listed company in about 7 out of 10 sessions since October 2015. Microsoft (MSFT) took the top spot in stretches, Amazon (AMZN) held it for 12 sessions in early 2019, and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) got exactly one day in 2016.

Then the AI boom rewrote the rankings.

Nvidia first closed at No. 1 on June 18, 2024. It has held that spot almost continuously since June 2025, interrupted only by a four-session Apple session in late July.

Apple continues to knock on the door

Apple has reclaimed the crown from Nvidia four times before today. This only lasted once, when the DeepSeek scare caused chip stocks to sink in January 2025 and Apple held on until spring.

Since the start of 2024, first place has changed hands around twenty times, according to calculations by Yahoo Finance.

This time, the two values are moving in opposite directions. Apple closed at a record high on Thursday. Nvidia is about 11% below its October 6 closing record after this month’s chip rout.

Since the October 6 close, which was also the record high for the S&P 500 (^IXIC), Apple is the only mega-cap stock in the green. That’s up 4%.

The bar chart of mega-cap stocks is moving from the October 6 close through Thursday. Apple is up 4.3%, the only winner. Microsoft is down 1.5%, Tesla is down 1.6%, Amazon is down 2.3%, Alphabet is down 6.7%, Nvidia is down 11.3%, Meta is down 12.1% and Broadcom is down 13.9%. — Yahoo Finance

See if Apple can end the day on top. This is no longer the case since July 30.

The next big test will be on Wednesday, when Microsoft and Alphabet release their results. They rank third and fourth, each worth around $3.9 trillion.

In-house AI tools helped analyze interview transcripts, research, and write this article. Humans reviewed, edited and fact-checked the material before publication.

Follow Jared Blikre on X @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.

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Apple continues to knock on the door

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