Microsoft Becomes Most Valuable US Company Amid Apple’s Declining Share Price

Apple Inc. is no longer the most valuable U.S. company after Microsoft Corporation surpassed it in terms of market capitalization. The latter snagged the title at a time when Apple is suffering a continuous decline on its share price.

Microsoft’s market capitalization has reportedly reached $812 billion, while Apple’s market cap was lower by $1 billion. This marks a momentous event for the Bill Gates-founded company, since the last time that it was hailed as more valuable than Tim Cook’s business was in 2010, as per Business Insider.

The news may come as a shock to many considering that less than two months ago, Apple peaked above $1.2 trillion while Microsoft recorded a market value of $887 billion. Apple was even lauded for being the first U.S. company to have a $1 trillion valuation just this past August.

The main reason why Apple quickly lost its status this month of November is the steady decline of its market cap due to growing concerns over the weak sales of its new iPhones and following the company’s decision to no longer disclose the unit sales of its iPhones, iPads and Mac devices.

Since early October, Apple was plagued by reports of slowing demand for its iPhones. Apple’s shares quickly tumbled as many of its suppliers decided to cut their forecasts because of an evident drop in overall smartphone demand.

On the other hand, Microsoft was able to grow in value thanks to its cloud business and strong PC sales. Even though Microsoft isn’t immune to struggles in the technology sector, it still held up much better than Apple since it only fell 9 percent compared to Apple’s 25 percent, as pointed out by Bloomberg.

Since stock prices continue to fluctuate, Microsoft and Apple are still vying for the title of being the most valuable U.S. company. However, the lead has been shifting back and forth between the two of them. For now though, Microsoft is doing a little better than Apple.