Microsoft Surpasses Apple as World’s Most Valuable Public Company

Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable company.

Microsoft has overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable public company for the first time in nearly 16 months after the smartphone giant reported a rare sales miss in the face of supply constraints, a new CNBC report explains.

Apple shares slid at the open this morning despite record Q4 revenues, as CEO Tim Cook warned that the global chip shortage would impact the company into the holiday season. Microsoft’s shares are up slightly, giving it a market cap of $2.45 trillion USD at the time of publication, compared to just $2.44 trillion for Apple.

Microsoft and Apple both face pressures from supply constraints, but Apple appears to be feeling the sting more deeply since hardware makes up the bulk of its revenue. Apple’s supply-chain troubles are big — as big as $6 billion USD, to be specific.

That’s how much “larger than expected” supply issues cost the iPhone maker in the June to September quarter, CEO Tim Cook told CNBC. “The supply constraints were driven by the industry-wide chip shortages that have been talked about a lot, and covid-related manufacturing disruptions in southeast Asia,” he said.

For a while, Apple escaped the worst of the shortages, owing to solid planning and ample buffers. But eventually, the crunch did hit the company — especially as demand for its new iPhones shot up faster than it could bolster its supply chain. In the middle of the year, Apple had to slash iPhone 13 sales goals by 10 million.

The worst of it isn’t even over yet. Apple expects a bigger hit from supply chain issues in the last three months of 2021, it said during its earnings call on Thursday.