Apple briefly overtakes Nvidia as world’s most valuable company on HSBC upgrade

Apple shares rose in early trading on July 17, briefly surpassing Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation. The surge followed a bullish research note from HSBC senior analyst Nicolas Cote-Colisson, who upgraded the technology giant to a Buy rating and raised its price target to $366.

The initial rally was driven by investor appetite for Apple’s approach to artificial intelligence. Cote-Colisson highlighted the company’s disciplined, low-spending strategy, which leverages on-device processing and private cloud servers across an installed base of more than 2.5 billion active devices. This contrasts with the heavy infrastructure spending currently undertaken by tech hyperscalers.

Despite the early momentum, Apple pared back its intraday gains later in the trading session. By the close, the company’s market capitalisation had slipped below that of Nvidia, ending the brief period where it held the title of the world’s most valuable firm.

Apple’s year-to-date performance has risen approximately 20%, outperforming Nvidia in 2026. The analyst expects shares to continue rising in the second half of the year, pointing to a robust hardware pipeline. Key upcoming releases include the iPhone 18 Pro launching this fall, the iPhone Air in early 2027, and future smart glasses.

Cote-Colisson noted that improved AI capabilities are expected to boost higher-margin Services revenue alongside hardware sales. The consensus rating on Apple remains a Moderate Buy, with price targets reaching as high as $400. The stock also offers a dividend yield of 0.33%.