Apple overtakes Nvidia as the world's most valuable company at $5.03 trillion as AI stocks slide

Apple is the world's most valuable company again. At Friday's close in New York (early Saturday in Pakistan) it was worth $5.03 trillion, ahead of Nvidia at $4.93 trillion, Bloomberg and Business Standard reported. At the interbank rate of about Rs 276.75 to the dollar on our dollar rate page, Apple's value works out to roughly Rs 1,392 trillion.

It is the first time Apple has passed Nvidia since a brief spell in late July.

The numbers

• Apple: $5.03 trillion, even after its shares fell 1.2% on Friday
• Nvidia: $4.93 trillion, after its shares dropped 4.2%
• This year: Apple shares are up 27% in 2026, more than twice Nvidia's gain
• Nasdaq 100: down 6.7% in October, its worst month since March 2025

Why money moved to Apple

Investors are questioning how much the biggest tech companies are spending on artificial intelligence and when that spending will pay off. Weak results from Intel and Amazon this week followed disappointing reports from Alphabet and Meta.

Apple has kept its capital spending low while rivals pour money into data centres. Some of those rivals now have negative free cash flow and are borrowing to fund the build-out, at a time when interest rates are rising. Apple's free cash flow is expected to rise 38% to $142 billion in fiscal 2026, Business Standard reported.

This week Alphabet lost about $500 billion in market value in a day, and Intel shares plunged more than 20% after it warned that the PC slowdown would last into 2027.

What it means in Pakistan

Apple does not sell directly in Pakistan, and iPhone prices here are set by authorised resellers, customs duty and the PTA registration tax rather than Apple's share price. If you are importing a phone, our PTA mobile tax calculator shows the tax by model, and the currency converter turns dollar prices into rupees.

For Pakistani investors who hold US shares through international brokers, the October sell-off has hit the AI names hardest, while Apple has held up better.

Related

• Alphabet loses $500 billion in a day
• Intel shares plunge over 20%
• OpenAI cuts its funding target as AI stocks slide