Apple sets record with AI features driving iPhone sales

Apple shares rose more than 7% to a record high on Tuesday and nearly regained Microsoft’s crown as the world’s most valuable company, a day after it unveiled new artificial intelligence features aimed at boosting demand for iPhones.

Tuesday’s rise came as Apple lags behind the S&P 500 in 2024 due to declining iPhone sales and concerns on Wall Street that the company is falling behind other tech heavyweights in a race to dominate emerging artificial intelligence technology.

Apple shares rose 7.3% to end the day at $207.15.

With a market capitalization of $3.18 trillion, Apple was just behind Microsoft with $3.22 trillion and ahead of AI chip powerhouse Nvidia with $2.97 trillion.

All three are in a strong race to become the world’s most valuable company.

Microsoft’s market capitalization recently surpassed Apple’s in January. Nvidia’s value briefly surpassed Apple’s value last week.

At its annual developer event on Monday, Apple unveiled an improved Siri virtual assistant that can answer a wider range of questions and perform more complex tasks than previous versions, and several artificial intelligence features in its apps that come with the latest operating systems for iPhone and iPad. and Mac computers.

At least 13 analysts raised their price targets for Apple stock after the developer event, with some saying the latest features could encourage an influx of new purchases as the company prepares to announce a new line of iPhones in the fall.

“Apple is demonstrating that it is investing in evolving its platform and devices to power the next era of computing, interfaces and experiences,” said Tung Nguyen, an analyst at Gartner. (Reporting by Yuvraj Malik and Shubham Batra in Bengaluru and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Shaunak Dasgupta and Bill Berkrot)