![\"May](\"https:\/\/cdn.cultofmac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/May26.jpg\" "\\"May")
May 26, 2010:<\/b> In a massive milestone, Apple passes Microsoft to become the world\u2019s most valuable technology company for the first time.<\/p>\n
The changing of the guard proves particularly amazing given that, just 15 years earlier, Apple looked close to dead, while Microsoft dominated the tech world thanks to Windows 95.<\/p>\n Microsoft and Apple enjoyed one of the most fascinating (and, at times, infuriating) tech rivalries of the 1980s and \u201990s. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs<\/a> and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates<\/a> were both the same age, born in 1955. That made comparing their respective successes and failures\u00a0interesting\u00a0\u2014 particularly since their winning periods rarely coincided.<\/p>\n Microsoft first made a name for itself working as a Mac developer. When Jobs was booted out of Apple<\/a> in 1985, then-Apple CEO John Sculley<\/a> tried to secure future great software for the Mac by\u00a0signing a deal with Gates<\/a>\u00a0to give Microsoft\u00a0\u201cnon-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, nontransferable license to use [parts of the Mac technology] in present and future software programs\u201d in exchange for Microsoft continuing to develop for\u00a0Apple.<\/p>\n How terrible was this lopsided deal? The full extent of the horribleness was revealed when\u00a0Microsoft\u00a0got its act together and started to make Windows competitive with Mac.\u00a0This triggered a\u00a0long-running lawsuit<\/a> over whether Microsoft stole the Mac\u2019s \u201clook and feel.\u201d (That legal battle ultimately went in Microsoft\u2019s favor.)<\/p>\n While Macs ran circles around Wintel PCs<\/a>, Windows machines cost less and ultimately became far more widely available. Although Apple was, at one time, a much more profitable company than Microsoft, by the mid-1990s, Apple was faltering thanks to disastrous decisions like \u201cclone Macs<\/a>.\u201d Microsoft, on the other hand, rose to dominate the industry following Windows 95<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Jobs returned to the failing Apple in 1997<\/a>, an injection of cash from Microsoft helped save Cupertino from bankruptcy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tables quickly turned in the late 1990s. Starting in January 1998<\/a>, Apple became profitable again. Meanwhile, Microsoft found itself the target of a long-running antitrust case. On December 30, 1999, Microsoft hit the height of its 1990s dominance<\/a>, with an all-time share price high of $53.60. Less than a year later, its stock price fell more than 60% to $20.<\/p>\n Apple, on the other hand, continued to climb. Cupertino reinvented itself as a consumer tech company that happened to build computers. With the success of the iPod<\/a>, iPhone<\/a> and iTunes Music Store<\/a>, by 2010 Apple generated twice as much revenue from mobile devices and music as from Macs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overall,\u00a0personal computers still moved more units than smartphones. But by 2010, smartphone sales were growing at five times the pace of computers.<\/p>\n At the close of the bell on May 26, 2010, Apple had finally passed Microsoft in market value for the first time. Apple was valued at $222.12 billion against Microsoft\u2019s $219.18 billion. Both clocked comparable revenue, but Microsoft held more cash on hand. (In 2010, Apple had \u201cjust\u201d $23.1 billion in cash.)<\/p>\n In May 2010, the only U.S. company valued more highly than Apple was Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $278.64 billion. In 2018, Apple surpassed $1 trillion<\/a>, becoming the first public company in history to do so. Microsoft eventually followed<\/a> \u2014 less than a year later.<\/p>\n In early 2022, Apple briefly surged above a historic $3 trillion market cap<\/a>, before falling back to earth. The company is now creeping back toward that lofty valuation<\/a>. Meanwhile, Microsoft \u2014 fueled by Wall Street\u2019s fascination with artificial intelligence and the company\u2019s investments in OpenAI \u2014 surpassed Apple\u2019s market cap in January 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n After many surges and pullbacks, Microsoft currently maintains that top slot as the world\u2019s most valuable publicly traded company<\/a>, followed by Nvidia and then Apple. Apple\u2019s stock in particular has been hit by the ongoing threat of massive tariffs<\/a> on iPhones and other products built in China and India.<\/p>\n What are your main memories of the Apple versus Microsoft conflict? And when did you buy (or sell) AAPL stock? Leave your comments below. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nMicrosoft and Apple: Good friends, better enemies<\/h2>\n
Apple passes Microsoft, becoming the world\u2019s most valuable tech company<\/h3>\n
Apple\u2019s $1 trillion market cap and beyond<\/h3>\n