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Apple becomes second ever $5tn company as investors flee AI stocks
Apple’s shares hit a session high of $342.89 on Tuesday. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP View image in fullscreen Apple’s shares hit a session high of $342.89 on Tuesday. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP Apple becomes second ever $5tn company as investors flee AI stocks Share price rally driven by strong product demand as well as decision to sit out AI spending race, amid wider tech sell-off Apple has become only the second company to pass the $5tn valuation mark, as it benefited from investors fleeing AI and semiconductor stocks amid a wider tech sell-off. The iPhone maker’s shares hit a session high of $342.89 on Tuesday, giving it a market capitalisation of $5.04tn (£3.78tn), then eased back to 0.83% up at $339.71 – just below the $5tn mark. Apple became the world’s most valuable company earlier this month, overtaking the chip giant Nvidia, which had been at the top since June 2025 and became the first company ever to breach the $5tn threshold last October. The US consumer electronics company’s rally has been driven as much by strong demand for its products as its decision to sit out the AI spending race that is sapping cash flows at big tech rivals. Its fresh valuation high came amid an intensifying sell-off of AI stocks around the world amid rising concerns about AI companies’ borrowing to fund datacentre expansion. US chip stocks extended their recent losses when Wall Street opened on Tuesday, with Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Sandisk, Western Digital Corp and Seagate Technology all down by more than 4%. The Nasdaq 100 index of leading tech stocks fell by as much as 1.8% at one point, meaning since its early June record high it had fallen more than 10% – the technical definition of a market correction. Meanwhile South Korea’s stock market slid to its lowest level since mid-April, with semiconductor companies SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics falling by more than 10%. Analysts attributed the sell-off to renewed worries over AI investment spending, and competition from cheaper Chinese companies, after a report by the Information that China had begun mass production of homegrown deep ultraviolet (DUV) chip-making tools. “We believe the market was likely spooked by the progress of China’s chip-making equipment capabilities, and was worried that this progress would threaten the competitive position of global chip making and chip equipment leaders,” said Jing Jie Yu, an equity analyst at Morningstar, adding that the sell-off was “largely a kneejerk reaction and overdone”. On Monday, shares in the Chinese memory chip maker CXMT rose by 466% when it floated on the Shanghai stock exchange, underlining China’s drive to create its own AI supply chain. View image in fullscreen Apple’s decision to hold iPhone prices steady, despite increases last month for MacBooks and iPads, has bolstered demand. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters Investors may also be growing jittery about the “circular funding” at the heart of the AI industry, through which
