Apple stays most valuable company as tech stocks plunge

Apple ↘ 1.53% is once again the world's most valuable listed company. Its shares jumped 5.31% on Wednesday, November 4, to a record close of $349.51, lifting its market value to about $5.079 trillion and putting it back ahead of Nvidia ↘ 9.26%, according to El Economista. Nvidia fell 3.17% the same day and closed worth about $4.832 trillion. Apple's gain was its largest one-day rise since April 2025, El Economista reported.eleconomista.com.mx

The rally came the day after Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections. Investors bet that a slower AI data center buildout would help cash-rich tech giants and hurt chip and infrastructure suppliers, Reuters reported.reuters.com

A Split AI Trade

CNBC Comcast Corporation ↗ 0.40% reported that tougher data center rules could help big tech companies and create risks for Nvidia. Microsoft ↘ 3.58% rose 6.7%, Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 2.19% gained 6.1%, Alphabet ↘ 1.94% added 3.2% and Meta ↘ 3.96% rose 1.4%, while data center operators fell sharply, according to Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↗ 0.75%. "If you push out the pace or change the pace of the data center buildout, you begin to change the fundamental trajectory for many of those suppliers," Scott Chronert of Citi Research told Reuters.cnbc.com+2

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ↘ 6.36% analysts said the Democrats' state-level wins made data center moratoriums more likely, which could affect about 45% of planned U.S. capacity, Investopedia reported. Evercore ISI ↘ 6.72% analyst Amit Daryanani sees Apple as a relatively defensive holding whose earnings depend on iPhone sales and services, not data center construction, Zacks reported. Daryanani also said a slower buildout could ease the memory chip costs that have squeezed Apple's margins.zacks.com+1

Earnings And a Brief Swap

Apple's fiscal fourth-quarter revenue reached a record $114.5 billion, up 12% from a year earlier, El Economista reported. iPhone sales rose 17.5% and Mac revenue climbed 23.7%, according to Zacks. Apple first overtook Nvidia at the close on October 30, then lost the lead on November 3 after a weak gross margin forecast, Forbes Australia reported. Nvidia had held the top spot almost continuously since June 2025.forbes.com.au+2

Thursday's Tech Rout

Wall Street's view on the election shifted on Thursday, November 5. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.56%, its steepest drop in 19 months, on worries that Democrats would impose rules that slow the AI infrastructure buildout, Reuters reported. Nvidia fell more than 9% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index PHLX Semiconductor Index ↘ 12.13% dropped more than 12%. Apple held up better, falling about 1.5%, according to Yahoo Finance. That gap kept the iPhone maker ahead of its chipmaking rival.newsobserver.com+1