Apple has comfortably reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable company, opening a substantial lead of NVIDIA after months of fierce competition between the two technology giants.

As of 17:50 GMT on 9 November 2026, Apple's market capitalisation stands at $5.08 trillion, compared with NVIDIA's $4.28 trillion. The difference is an enormous $800 billion gap, following a difficult period for NVIDIA shares, with recent controversy surrounding its CEO.

Apple and NVIDIA's battle for the top

It was in August 2011 when Apple first claimed the title of world's most valuable company. It had just overtaken oil giant ExxonMobile, the previous title holder.

Apple held this title for the majority of the following 13 years, briefly being overtaken by other tech giants including Microsoft.

In June 2024, NVIDIA overtook Apple as the AI race was beginning to pick up, with increased demand for NVIDIA GPUs and its software services. Apple on the other hand, was struggling in the AI race, facing delays with the new version of Siri and releasing its suite of Apple Intelligence tools to the market much later than its competitors.

However, Apple's hardware has been selling well, with Apple last week reporting its best ever fiscal year revenue-wise.

These results, followed by the midterm elections in the US and the recent admission of an affair by NVIDIA's founder and CEO, have all resulted in the decline of NVIDIA stock allowing Apple to now hold a massive lead in the market.

Today's numbers make it hard to believe that NVIDIA was the first company to ever reach a valuation of $5 trillion, and that they were neck and neck with Apple up until a few weeks ago.

The Jensen Huang controversy

On Sunday evening, NVIDIAs board of directors released a short statement where they announced they were launching an "independent investigation" following reports that its CEO had "been the target of a foreign intelligence effort."

This followed with a press release from Jensen Huang himself, where he shared an email he sent to NVIDIA employees earlier on in the day.

He said he owed an apology to his family and everyone at NVIDIA, saying that he had been "unfaithful to my wife" and that his actions had "hurt her and our children" and that he was very sorry.

He also said that he was "fully committed to NVIDIA", signalling that he has no plans to leave the role.

This would have undoubtedly hurt the company's stock price, as the CEO has found himself entangled in a potential national security threat, and investors will be wary that Huang could ultimately be replaced, though there is no clear successor in place.

Final Thoughts

The stock market has reacted negatively to this news, but this could be temporary.

For now, Apple maintains a comfortable lead as the world's most valuable company, worth about $1 trillion more than its biggest tech competitors including Microsoft and Google, and has finally widened the gap between NVIDIA of no actions of its own.