Apple passed Nvidia on Monday for the title of world's most valuable company, with the iPhone maker topping the artificial intelligence chip firm at market close for the first time since April 2025.

Shares of Nvidia fell 5% on Monday, giving the chipmaker a valuation of $4.77 trillion, as AI chip stocks in general declined as investors fret about large costs related to the AI buildout.

Meanwhile, Apple shares rose 1%, giving it a market cap of $4.95 trillion, ahead of the company's highly-anticipated earnings on Thursday.

Nvidia had held the top spot as the most valuable company since June 2025, when it took the crown from Microsoft, and it briefly held a $5 trillion capitalization in October.

So far in 2026, Nvidia's shares have only climbed 4% while Apple's are up 24%. Apple has outperformed the market as investors have rewarded its reluctance to spend heavily on capital expenditures for AI, preferring to rent capacity instead of building its own.

While Nvidia's sales are now in the third year of massive AI-driven growth, many investors have switched their focus from AI chips called graphics processing units to memory chips and other data center infrastructure that benefit from the AI boom, such as Micron Technology, SK Hynix, and Sandisk.

Apple will report fiscal third-quarter earnings on Thursday, in which the iPhone maker is expected to reveal for the first time some of the financial impacts from the AI-driven global memory chip shortage, which forced the company to raise Mac and iPad prices in June.

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