Apple Reaches $5 Trillion Market Cap as Tim Cook Departs

Apple Inc. closed a trading session at approximately $5.005 trillion, becoming the second company in history to surpass a $5 trillion market capitalization after Nvidia. This milestone follows a 25 percent increase in share price, driven by investor confidence in the Apple ecosystem and anticipation for the foldable iPhone Duo and new Siri AI.

The valuation peak coincides with the conclusion of Tim Cook's 15-year tenure as CEO. During his leadership, which ended August 31, the company's market value increased 13-fold. Apple has recently raised prices across its device lineup to offset rising hardware costs for memory and storage chips, even as revenue growth slows relative to the S&P 500.

Despite the financial milestone, the company is engaged in a legal battle with OpenAI over AI competition and hardware strategy. Apple has sued OpenAI for trade secret theft, while OpenAI alleges that Apple poached an employee who stole confidential files.