Microsoft Overtakes Apple As Most Valuable Public Company

Apple’s share price has fallen 23 percent in the past four days, as the tech giant is battered by investor worry over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Indeed, Apple share price has fallen steadily to $172.42 (£134.66), giving it a market capitalisation of $2.59 trillion (£2.02 trillion) as of Wednesday afternoon. Five days ago Apple’s share price had been trading around $210 (£164.01).

Meanwhile Microsoft’s share price on Wednesday is at $354.56 (£276.78), giving it a market capitalisation of $2.64 trillion (£2.06 trillion), making the software and cloud giant the world’s most valuable publicly listed firm.

Tariff chaos

Microsoft had previously briefly overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable public company in January 2024.

Overall Saudi Aramco remains the most valuable company in the world, valued at $6.13 trillion.

So what has prompted Apple’s recent share price decline?

Well last week US President Donald Trump had announced America’s so called “Liberation Day” with sweeping tariffs, which he claimed would “address “underlying conditions, including a lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships, disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, and US trading partners’ economic policies that suppress domestic wages and consumption…”

It comes after Trump in February had signed a Presidential Memorandum entitled “Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs,” that directed further review of US trading partners’ non-reciprocal trading practices. China had responded with its own tariffs against US goods.

Trump’s tariffs announced last week were 10 percent for a few selected nations (including the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore).

However Trump’s tariffs were much higher for 60 so called “worst offenders” which includes China, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Africa, and even US allies such as the European Union, Japan and Taiwan.

Countries that faced the highest tariffs are China (54 percent, including previously announced tariffs); Cambodia (49 percent tariff); Vietnam (46 percent tariff); and Thailand (36 percent tariff).

There are no additional tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as both countries have already been subjected to a 25 percent tariff by Trump.

Trump last week had also announced new import tariffs of 25 percent on all cars and car parts coming into the US. Car maker Land Rover has already ‘paused’ shipments to the US.

Trump’s latest round of tariffs came into effect on Wednesday 9 April 2025.

As a result, China has just announced it will impose additional tariffs on US goods on Thursday. It will place an import tax of 84 percent on US goods – a 50 percent increase from its previous 34 percent tariff.

Meanwhile European Union countries are expected to approve on Wednesday the bloc’s first countermeasures against Trump’s tariffs.

Apple overtaken

Under Trump Apple had pledged in February to invest $500 billion (£395bn) in the US in the next four years, including hiring 20,000 new staff and producing AI servers in the country, as CEO Tim Cook met with Trump to try and avoid new tariffs on goods imported from China.

Investors are well aware that China is where Apple produces most of its iPhones and other electronics.

Besides Trump’s tariffs roiling markets worldwide, Trump’s strategy is also impacting the share price of tech firms that are dependent on China for certain aspects of their business.

Microsoft in comparison has spent the last few years winding down its operations in China.

In November 2023 CEO Satya Nadella had confirmed that Microsoft was not focused on China as a domestic market, but does do business with major Chinese companies operating outside the country.

Considering the impact that Trump is having on the economy and world markets, some tech CEOs including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Shou Zi Chew (TikTok CEO), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet CEO) and Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber CEO) may regret their attendance at the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States.

Some notable tech leaders however did not attend Trump’s inauguration including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

That said Nadella and Microsoft’s president Brad Smith did met with Trump to discuss tech policy and Redmond’s pledge to invest $80 billion (£64 billion) into global AI infrastructure.