Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTFatima GulzarTue, August 11, 2026 at 3:32 PM GMT+2 5 min readApple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) have traded the title of world's most valuable company more than once in the past two weeks. Apple first edged ahead on Friday, July 17, at $4.88 trillion versus Nvidia's roughly $4.86 trillion after Nvidia shares fell 3.5%. Nvidia returned to the top spot, then lost it again Monday, July 27, when a 5% drop pulled its value to about $4.77 trillion, below Apple's $4.95 trillion. Apple briefly touched $5 trillion Tuesday, July 28, a milestone Nvidia had reached first, back in October. Apple's stock then fell two straight days and dropped 7% to 8% in extended trading Thursday after fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat estimates.Why the Beat Didn't Lift the StockApple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s numbers were strong. Revenue rose 16.4% to $109.42 billion, above estimates and Apple's own guidance, led by iPhone sales up 21.7% to $54.25 billion, Apple's best-ever fiscal third quarter, and Mac sales up 28.7%. CEO Tim Cook, on his last call before John Ternus takes over in September, said Apple was seeing "an incredibly strong product cycle beyond our expectations." Investors sold anyway: guidance for the current quarter came in soft, with revenue growth of just 9% to 11%, below the 12% Wall Street wanted, and gross margin guided down to 47% to 48% from this quarter's 50.1%. Cook blamed rising memory costs and a chipmaking capacity shortage, calling the memory crunch a "hundred-year flood."This makes you wonder: is the market right to punish Apple over one soft guide, or is it overreacting to supply problems Cook says Apple can manage, while NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) rides the very AI boom straining that same supply chain?Is Apple (AAPL) One of the Top 12 Dividend Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire Cliff Asness?Apple's Bull and Bear CaseApple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is deliberately spending less than its peers, expecting just over $11 billion in capex this year, compared with more than $100 billion each for several hyperscaler rivals. Baird analysts wrote that "investors are coming around to Apple's industry-leading" cash generation and recommended buying the stock. Apple still has an AI angle: a redesigned Siri built with Google arrives with new iPhone hardware in September, across an installed base of 1.5 billion iPhones, and Wedbush's Dan Ives estimates AI features could eventually add $15 billion a year to a services business that already made $109 billion in 2025. Goldman Sachs analysts noted Apple also gained share in China, adding four points as rivals raised prices and the firm held the line.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info