For most of the past two years, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) has stood at the summit of the stock market. As the chipmaker whose processors power much of the artificial intelligence boom, it was perhaps no surprise that it became the first company ever to reach a $5 trillion market cap. After first hitting that record in October 2025, it has spent much of 2026 comfortably above the mark.
Yet its perch has not gone unchallenged. In July of this past summer, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) briefly leapfrogged it, closing in on the $5 trillion milestone before NVIDIA reclaimed the top spot. Now, the iPhone maker is closing the gap once more. Its shares are up about 6% since the first week of September to roughly $4.98 trillion, while NVIDIA, down about 1.6% over the same stretch, has stalled at around $5.50 trillion.
