The title of world’s most valuable company changed hands on July 28 without a product launch, an earnings report or a single keynote. Apple’s market capitalization moved past NVIDIA’s during the trading day, ending the chip maker’s roughly one-year run at the top. The shift was powered less by anything Apple did than by what it has refused to do: spend like its rivals.
Wall Street has spent the past year rewarding companies that pour money into artificial-intelligence infrastructure and punishing those that hold back. This week, the calculus flipped. Apple’s restrained approach to AI capital spending, long criticized by analysts as a competitive weakness, is now being described in investor notes as discipline. The market’s reassessment follows a stretch in which NVIDIA and other AI infrastructure names sold off sharply on concerns that spending is outpacing demand.
Apple’s valuation shift coincided with a separate announcement aimed at keeping its products within reach of consumers feeling the sting of rising memory prices. The company said it is teaming up with the Swedish payments firm Klarna to launch “Apple Upgrade,” a device rental program covering the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Monthly rentals start at $17.99, and the program lets customers swap devices on a schedule rather than buying them outright.
The timing is no accident. Memory chip prices have climbed sharply through 2026, pushing up the cost of the components inside every iPhone and Mac, and Apple has absorbed part of the increase rather than pass it all to buyers. The rental model spreads the cost across months and lowers the entry price for premium devices, a response to signs that consumers are hesitating before upgrading. Apple said the program will roll out first in the United States and expand to other markets later in the year.
The announcement drew immediate political fire. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has made criticism of large technology companies a recurring theme, used the occasion to attack Apple’s pricing, pointing to a roughly $200 increase in entry-level device prices and calling for the breakup of what she described as concentrated corporate power. “These companies need to be taken apart,” she wrote, in comments that quickly circulated on social media. Apple did not respond directly to the criticism.
The dual developments, a valuation record and a rental launch, reflect two pressures now working on the company simultaneously. The first is financial: investors are starting to reward Apple’s capital restraint at a moment when the AI buildout is drawing scrutiny. The second is commercial: the company needs to keep unit volumes moving even as components get more expensive and consumers grow more price-sensitive.
Wall Street’s changed attitude toward Apple’s spending was visible in trading patterns this month. While shares of AI infrastructure companies have been volatile, Apple’s stock has been steady, and several brokerages have upgraded the company on the strength of its services business and its installed base. Analysts note that Apple’s capital expenditures as a share of revenue remain a fraction of those at Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, and that the company’s return on invested capital is correspondingly higher. “The market spent two years punishing companies for not spending enough on AI,” said one technology analyst. “It is now asking whether the spenders can ever earn their money back. Apple looks good in that light.”
The Klarna partnership is also a signal about Apple’s strategy toward services. Rentals generate recurring revenue, feed the company’s existing subscription bundle and, critically, create a path for customers to upgrade more frequently, which in turn drives accessory and service sales. Klarna, which has pivoted from buy-now-pay-later lending toward broader financial services, gets a marquee distribution channel. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the agreement.
Whether Apple can hold the top spot is another question. NVIDIA’s market value remains within reach, and the chip maker’s fortunes are tied to the trajectory of AI spending, which remains enormous even amid recent doubts. A strong earnings report from either company could flip the ranking again. Apple reports its fiscal third-quarter results this week, and investors will be listening for any sign that the company plans to raise its AI capital spending.
For now, the symbolism is hard to miss. The company that declined to chase the AI spending boom now sits atop the market, while the company that powered it watches from second place. The question investors are asking: which position is the better bet for the next year?
The rental push also dovetails with Apple’s services strategy, which has become the company’s most reliable growth engine as hardware sales mature. Subscription revenue now contributes a meaningful share of total revenue, and executives have said the installed base, now well over two billion active devices, is the foundation of the business. Rental plans keep devices in the ecosystem and pull customers toward the services that attach to them.
