A fierce competitor has overtaken Apple and regained the top spot in market value.

Artificial Intelligence Gives Alphabet the Edge

A fierce competitor has overtaken Apple and regained the top spot in market value.

The technology sector has witnessed a remarkable shift that has reshuffled the cards among Silicon Valley giants. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has surpassed Apple in market value, a first in years, driven by the tremendous momentum in the field of artificial intelligence.

This scenario is reminiscent of August 2018, when Apple became the first publicly traded US company to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion, at a time when Alphabet was valued at approximately $854 billion. Just a few months later, in January 2019, Alphabet briefly overtook Apple, before the latter reclaimed the top spot and continued its historic rise, according to a report published by PhoneArena.

But the major turning point came in late 2022 with the public launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI, an event that triggered an unprecedented wave of investment in artificial intelligence and reshaped global financial markets.

Nvidia: The Leading AI Star

At the heart of this boom, Nvidia emerged as the biggest winner, as its graphics processing units (GPUs) became the backbone for training and running AI models. Thanks to their parallel processing capabilities, these chips clearly outperform traditional CPUs in executing complex calculations in fractions of a second.

As a result, Nvidia's stock skyrocketed, surpassing Apple's market capitalization for the first time in June 2024, before becoming the first publicly traded US company to reach a $4 trillion valuation in July 2025, topping the list of the most valuable companies in the United States.

Alphabet catches up and surpasses Apple

Following in Nvidia's footsteps, Alphabet has capitalized heavily on the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, becoming one of the most attractive stocks in the tech sector. By the end of trading, Alphabet's market capitalization reached approximately $3.88 trillion, surpassing Apple, whose value fell to $3.84 trillion after its stock declined by more than 4% over five days.

This marks the first time since 2019 that Alphabet has clearly outperformed Apple, reflecting a profound shift in Wall Street's perception of the two companies' futures.

Agent AI is the trump card

Analysts believe that Alphabet's dominance is not solely due to traditional AI, but also to what is known as "agent AI," which is capable of planning, executing, and making multi-step decisions without direct human intervention.

Google enjoys a clear competitive advantage in this field, having integrated intelligent agents into its products, such as the Chrome browser, which can now perform automated tasks like booking restaurants, comparing flights, or compiling data from multiple pages and converting it into organized tables.

Is Apple temporarily out of the race?

On the other hand, Apple faces increasing challenges in the artificial intelligence race. Despite the extensive promotion of its Apple Intelligence initiative, many believe the company has yet to deliver what the market expects.

Apple's hopes remain pinned on a new version of its AI-powered voice assistant, Siri, which is expected to launch later this year with the iOS 26.4 update, after several delays. While Apple is betting on future innovations like augmented reality glasses, artificial intelligence appears to be the dominant player in the tech arena, and with it, the balance of power is shifting.