Apple Unseats Nvidia As The World’s Most Valuable Company As Market Cap Soars To $4.88 Trillion

• HSBC upgraded Apple to 'Buy' and lifted its price target to $366, citing Apple's AI strategy, modest capital spending, and upcoming hardware launches.
• Separately, a Financial Times report said Apple sent legal letters to around 40 former employees now working at OpenAI, expanding its trade-secrets investigation.
• The reported outreach follows Apple's lawsuit filed last week, which accuses OpenAI of recruiting key engineers to obtain confidential hardware and product-development information.

Apple (AAPL) overtook Nvidia (NVDA) as the most valuable company in the world in morning trade on Friday, touching a market capitalization of $4.88 trillion. This is the first time that Apple has trumped Nvidia’s market capitalization this year. 

AAPL’s stock edged 0.6% lower after market open on Friday and was among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits. Retail sentiment around the company on the platform trended in the ‘bullish’ zone over the past day, accompanied by ‘high’ levels of chatter. Platform data showed an over 10% rise in message volume in the last 24 hours, and an over 300% jump over the past week.

Meanwhile, NVDA’s stock dropped more than 3.5% in morning trade on Friday as the chip stocks' rout continued. Retail sentiment around the tech giant fell to ‘bullish’ from ‘extremely bullish’ over the past day, accompanied by chatter at ‘normal’ levels.

HSBC on Friday upgraded AAPL’s stock to 'Buy' and NVDA continued to be weighed down by the weakness in semiconductor stocks. A Financial Times report also said that Apple had sent legal letters to around 40 former employees of the company now working at OpenAI. That is roughly 10% of the 400 former Apple employees now working at OpenAI. The letters direct them to preserve documents and communications and demand meetings with Apple’s lawyers. 

HSBC Sees Apple At An 'Operational Turning Point'

Supporting the bullish retail commentary, HSBC upgraded Apple to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ with a price target of $366, up from $260 – a level that AAPL’s stock has not seen since April. The new price target implies a potential upside of around 10% from Thursday’s closing price of over $333.

The firm said that Apple is now at an "operational turning point," in a note to investors cited by TheFly. It can stay away from the high capital expenditure debate as it invests only 2.5% of its 2026 sales versus 39% for hyperscalers, it added. 

HSBC also noted that Apple is well positioned to leverage its 2.5 billion installed device base with its forthcoming revamped Apple Intelligence. The "AI boost comes at the right moment, when we think Apple has one of its most innovative product pipelines in place," the firm wrote.
It views Apple's hardware pipeline as strong, which includes the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max this fall, an iPhone Air in April 2027, and "most importantly," a book-style foldable phone.

AAPL’s stock has gained over 20% this year and rallied nearly 60% in the last 12 months.

What Are Apple’s Allegations Against OpenAI?

The report by the Financial Times follows Apple's lawsuit filed last week against OpenAI. The company alleged that there was a coordinated effort to obtain confidential information related to its hardware engineering and product development, calling its initial discoveries “the tip of the iceberg.”

In its lawsuit, Apple stated that OpenAI recruited key engineers, including former executives Tang Tan and Chang Liu, in order to benefit from the company’s proprietary designs, manufacturing processes, and other trade secrets. 

Tan is OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and a 24-year Apple veteran who led product design, while Liu is on OpenAI's hardware team after working as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple.

OpenAI Rejects Apple's Allegations

Earlier this week, OpenAI told Bloomberg that it’s “not aware of any evidence” that gives Apple’s lawsuit alleging trade-secret theft merit. “While we take these allegations seriously, we’re not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit,” OpenAI said in the statement. 

“We believe in fair competition and allowing people the freedom to work wherever they choose, and we’re focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

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