Author: sick skills

Apple stock ended trading on Friday as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, overtaking Nvidia for the first time since April 2025 after a sustained recovery for the iPhone maker met a sharp selloff in chip stocks.

Apple shares closed at $333.74, leaving the company with a market capitalization of approximately $4.88 CAP trillion. Nvidia ended down about 3.5% on the day, with a value of about $4.86 trillion.

The distinction is largely symbolic, and a lead this narrow could disappear during the next trading session, if not in after-hours trading over the weekend. Still, Apple’s return to the top caps a striking reversal from the tariff, China, and artificial intelligence concerns that weighed on its shares the last time it held the position.

Apple took a difficult route back to the top

Apple entered the spring of 2025 facing doubts about whether its first Apple Intelligence rollout could drive meaningful upgrades. The company confirmed on March 7 that its more personalized Siri features were taking longer than expected.

Tariff fears added a more immediate financial threat. Apple shares lost about 15% during the first half of 2025 as investors considered the company’s reliance on Asian manufacturing.

At the time, Tim Cook warned that tariffs could add about $900 million in costs during the June quarter. It ultimately paid $800 million, but has filed for a refund of those, which Apple says will be used to expand US manufacturing.

Nvidia moved in the opposite direction. Surging demand for AI processors carried the chipmaker back to the top of the market in June 2025, past $4 trillion the following month, and briefly beyond $5 trillion in October.

Apple’s underlying business nevertheless began producing results that were difficult for Wall Street to dismiss. Revenue rose 10% to $94 billion during the June 2025 quarter, followed by an 8% increase to $102.5 billion during the September quarter.

Strong early demand for the iPhone 17 helped Apple reach a $4 trillion valuation in October. Services continued producing record revenue and substantially higher margins than the company’s hardware divisions.

Momentum accelerated during fiscal 2026. Apple reported an all-time record of $143.8 billion for the holiday period, up 16%, followed by a March-quarter record of $111.2 billion, up 17%.

The March quarter set records for total revenue, iPhone revenue, earnings per share, and Services. Greater China returned to strong growth despite earlier concerns over local competition and delayed Apple Intelligence features.

Wall Street changed how it views Apple’s AI strategy

Apple previewed Siri AI at WWDC in June, demonstrating the personal context, onscreen awareness, app control, and conversational features promised in 2024. The technology is due with the fall operating-system updates and is already available to beta testers.

The launch reinforced Apple’s strategy of adding AI to products and services without matching the massive infrastructure spending of Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta. As investors question those returns, Apple can leave much of the model and data-center expense to partners while distributing AI features across more than two billion active devices.

Apple is also nearing its first CEO transition since 2011. Tim Cook will become executive chairman on September 1, with hardware engineering chief John Ternus succeeding him, but the planned handoff has done little to slow the stock’s rise.

Nvidia’s decline helped Apple finish the job

Apple didn’t retake the top position because of a single announcement or earnings report. Its valuation recovered over more than a year, while Nvidia’s decline on Friday erased enough market value to allow Apple to move ahead.

Nvidia’s role in the AI industry hasn’t diminished. Its processors remain central to the data-center expansion that pushed the company past Apple, and even a modest rebound could reverse their positions again.

Apple’s return instead suggests Wall Street no longer sees massive AI spending as the only credible path to growth.

After spending much of 2025 as the industry’s most conspicuous AI laggard, record iPhone sales, Services growth, a China recovery, and a tangible Siri roadmap have made Apple’s restraint look more like strategy than failure.

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Apple has now announced who can advertise on Apple Maps, barring entire business categories while still giving itself the right to final say over any advertisements on the platform.

On Tuesday, Apple updated its advertising guidelines. This was particularly noteworthy as it outlines the policies that advertisers will be expected to follow when advertising on Apple Maps.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Apple’s policies are generally more restrictive than Google’s across some key categories. This has typically been the case for content moderation between the two services.

For instance, Apple Maps has placed strict prohibitions on certain advertising categories outright. Banned categories include bail bonding services and cryptocurrency ATMs.

It also prohibits any home services. This would include plumbers, electricians, HVAC, roofing, and more; Apple does not explain the rationale for excluding these categories.

Google generally allows these categories to advertise, subject to local law and other advertising policies.

And while Apple hasn’t outright banned medical services, it does note that any such ad “will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.” Google will generally allow medical ads, assuming they are compliant with local laws.

Apple has also fully banned political advertising, though this is not exclusive to Apple Maps. Google allows political advertising on Google Maps and other categories.

Apple Maps ads will be expected to comply with the whole of Apple advertising policy. This means that ads must be presented clearly and advertisers cannot send users to unrelated pages or use misleading claims.

Generally, Apple reserves broader discretion to reject ads, even if they’re not directly in violation of a rule. Google, on the other hand, tends to allow most things that don’t violate any of its listed criteria.

Coming to a Maps app near you

Apple Maps ads are only now beginning to roll out after years of speculation. Initially, it was believed that the tech giant was weighing the pros and cons of integrated ads in 2022.

Reports later suggested the advertisements would surface in 2023. However, the feature failed to materialize in 2023, 2024, or 2025.

Speculation resumed in late 2025, with reports once again hinting to a 2026 launch. Apple officially confirmed those plans in March 2026 with the launch of Apple Business, announcing that advertising would begin rolling out to Apple Maps during Summer 2026.