The group co-founded by Bill Gates became the most valuable company in the world, briefly overtaking Apple on January 11, with whom it has been competing for the top spot ever since. This performance can be explained in particular by its investment in OpenAI and the integration of the popularized Chat GPT technology into its products.
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It’s a small earthquake in the world of new technologies. Microsoft became the most valuable listed company in the world on Friday January 11. Valued at nearly $2.9 trillion, the American IT giant briefly overtook Apple on January 11, 2024, which had previously held first place since 2010. Since then, the two IT giants have been competing for the position . In the first two weeks of the year alone, the Redmond group’s stock price gained around $92 billion.
To explain the increase, we must turn to artificial intelligence. “ Microsoft benefited from the positive impact of the launch of generative artificial intelligence », explains Mohamed Makhlouf, professor at ESSCA and specialist in artificial intelligence. But beyond investing in companies like in OpenAIcreator of ChatGPT, Microsoft has “ integrated these artificial intelligence capabilities into several of its products, such as the Bing search engine », Analyzes the specialist. To the point that Microsoft is often seen today as one of the leaders in artificial intelligence.
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The American giant founded by Bill Gates is not the only one to benefit from market interest in AI. “ Amazon, for example, is doing very well. In addition to its core business, it has invested in intelligent cloud (storage service on remote servers using AI), and this is a very powerful growth engine », Estimates Mohamed Makhlouf. Same phenomenon for Nvidia, which manufactures graphics cards allowing in particular the development of AI.
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One question remains: is this market interest in AI sustainable? In other words, does it represent a stock market bubble, like that of the internet in the early 2000s? “ Microsoft’s valuation is 14 times higher than its turnover, which is around $200 billion. This is a ratio much higher than those we saw during the internet bubble. Today there is no certainty about the sustainability of these stock prices, particularly with all the societal changes that accompany the development of AI », Continues Mohamed Makhlouf.
Long champion of stock market valuation, Apple is going through a slightly more difficult period. The Apple firm lost around 3% of its value over the first weeks of 2024. Particularly to blame: poor sales of its new iPhone in China, a crucial market for the Cupertino company.
Apple is expected to unveil its virtual reality headset, the Vision Pro, in February. “ They need to improve their products in terms of artificial intelligence to be able to survive and maintain their market share », Estimates Mohamed Makhouf. And to conclude: “ If users cannot find an equivalent offer from Apple, they will not wait long to switch to competitors. »
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