Microsoft yesterday briefly stole Apple’s crown of being the largest US company by market value. However, it was a fleeting victory that was soon overturned.

The two tech giants had been going head-to-head since February 4, 2019 and Apple has held the accolade since November 2021.

The Wall Street Journal  reported that Microsoft shares rose 05. percent on Thursday morning, bringing its market value to US$2.86 trillion. Apple fell briefly below that amount by a whisker. However the lead changed back to Apple quickly afterwards.

There’s a deeper story that suggests this two horse race may take another twist. It’s to do with Microsoft’s ascendancy under a policy promoted long ago by CEO Satya Nadella.

Not long after he took the reins at Microsoft, Nadella discontinued Windows phones and its associated operating system. It’s a decision that he later expressed regret over, but the flip side was a philosophy of increasing collaboration with Microsoft’s previous rivals Apple and Google and a larger presence of Microsoft software on their phones.

Over the years Microsoft has amplified its role as a service company which saw more of its software and support services used in the corporate and business world. In Q2, 2023, Azure (22%) had double the cloud market share of Google (11%) and was second only to AWS (32%) in what is a $247 billion cloud market, according to Statista.

The big recent development is Microsoft’s successful involvement with Generative AI and its collaboration with ChatGPT developer OpenAI. The recent integration of Generative AI through Microsoft Copilot in the Edge browser and now as a Copilot key on keyboards will see Microsoft’s version of generative AI used across the world.

The advent of the Copilot key as a go-to option for search is also a threat to the dominance of Google search. It’s another reason for Microsoft to be optimistic about the future.

These new green shoots might see Microsoft steal the top market firm value away from Apple once more, in the near future, but for longer.

Apple has made great strides in expanding its business away from just devices to its entertainment subscription services and iCloud, which bring in billions of dollars in revenue regularly. However there is some concern about its new green shoots.

According to Yahoo Finance in the US, Redburn Atlantic analyst James Cordwell said he saw little room for upside for Apple’s stock in the next few years, and that an “anticipated underwhelming March quarter could impact confidence in this outlook.”

Barclays’s Tim Long also downgraded Apple’s stock, dropping it to Underweight from Equal Weight, and lowered its price target from $161 to $160, according to the report.