CUPERTINO (dpa-AFX) - On Wednesday, Microsoft (MSFT) became the second company after Apple (AAPL) to cross the $3 trillion mark in market valuation, retaining its place as the second most valuable company in the world.
Microsoft pushed the iPhone maker behind when its shares traded at $405.63, up around 1.7 percent on Wednesday afternoon, exceeding a $3 million market value.
However, Apple gained its crown back when its stock closed at $194.50, valuing the company at $3 trillion, whereas Microsoft closed at $402.56 valuing the company's market capitalization at $2.99 trillion.
Last year, the tech company's stock surged 57 percent, while its rival Apple's stock gained 48 percent.
The surge in the Redmond-based company's stock is mainly linked to its progress in the development of artificial intelligence. Last year, it made a multi-billion investment in the ChatGPT maker, OpenAI, whereas Apple is lagging in the AI field and is also experiencing a slowness in iPhone sales, especially in China.
On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley had pegged its price target for the company's stock to $450 from $415, predicting that Microsoft's role in AI business is 'getting even stronger'.
Earlier this month, Microsoft had briefly surpassed Apple to become the world's most valuable company when its stock gained around 1 percent, pushing its market value to $2.87 trillion.
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