Driven by AI, Apple's market capitalization overtook Microsoft, and stock prices continued to rise

On June 13, EST, after the US stock market closed, Apple (AAPL) rose for three consecutive days, surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) to become the company with the highest market capitalization in the US stock market and regaining the title of the most valuable company in the world, indicating that investors' confidence in the growth and status of artificial intelligence has rebounded, and competition in the field of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly intense.

Recently, Apple announced its vision for generative artificial intelligence at the Global Developers Conference, marking Apple's significant progress in the field of AI.

Its stock price continues to rise after experiencing a brief decline, which also shows that the market has good expectations for the future. If you want to seize this wave, you can go to BiyaPay, search for stock codes on the platform, and trade online in real-time; or deposit digital currency (USDT) to the multi-asset wallet BiyaPay, and then withdraw fiat money to Jiaxin Securities to invest in US stocks.

Earlier, Microsoft also announced this vision at the Build developer conference and the launch of the new Copilot+ PC. The focus of the two is different; Microsoft's artificial intelligence focus is still cloud computing. The company has invested heavily in this field and can use the results of the work of its partner OpenAI. Apple, on the other hand, is following its own path in the field of artificial intelligence and intends to inject useful intelligence into its platform. This intelligence mainly exists in devices.

ChatGPT, launched at the end of 2022, exploded like a hydrogen bomb in the PC world. There's finally an AI that can talk to people through text input, and it seems really smart and knowledgeable.

The computational resources required to train a generative pre-trained converter (GPT) AI are enormous, and the scale is constantly growing. Nvidia (NVDA) is well placed to provide the necessary computing hardware. At least for now, it's still the company that benefits the most from GPT.

For major platform companies such as Apple and Microsoft, 2023 has been an experimental year trying to understand the uses of GPT. Microsoft introduced GPT-based Copilot as a “preview” of a number of its software products.

Apple seems to be on the sidelines. Since introducing Face ID in iPhone X in 2017, it has only modestly upgraded the AI in the device. Since 2017, Apple has added a dedicated AI accelerator called Neural Engine to every iPhone processor and all M-series Apple Silicon Macs.

However, Apple's in-device AI can't run something like ChatGPT because it's cloud-based, and Apple's AI expertise has largely been overlooked or underestimated by media critics.

Over the past year, both Microsoft and Apple have realized that GPT represents the next major advance in computer user interfaces. With proper training and implementation, GPT can become a computer.

The appeal of GPT as a computer interface is irresistible to both companies, and both are committed to giving their operating systems a GPT-based user interface.

For GPT to truly be a useful computer interface, GPT must be able to access all kinds of data about users, including usage history and personal information. This poses various privacy issues.

With a partnership with OpenAI and a partial shareholding, Microsoft has taken the lead in GPT technology. It doesn't need to hire OpenAI to provide GPT technology, it can bring this technology in-house and adapt it to its own needs

Microsoft probably started doing this a few years ago, since it first invested in OpenAI in 2019. As Microsoft increasingly affirmed the value of GPT as a computer user interface, it began introducing “Copilots” into its various software products.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has invested heavily in its Azure cloud infrastructure to support hosting GPT technology in the cloud. Microsoft becomes OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider.

The need to host ChatGPT and physical computing like GPT naturally leverages Microsoft's strengths in commercial cloud services. Even though Windows appears to be stagnating as a growth engine, cloud hosting for AI services will drive Microsoft's growth in 2023.

Additionally, Microsoft realizes that AI on devices requires hardware acceleration on PC processors, requiring that the new Copilot+ PC's processor must have a neural processing unit (NPU) with specific AI computing power.

However, the new hardware platform is the only way Microsoft can provide all of the unique features of Copilot+ PCs. The current Copilot+ PC is simply a notebook computer driven by an NPU processor.

The Copilot+ PC can't be the most powerful PC in the world; its so-called unique features can be implemented on almost any Windows desktop or laptop with the right GPU.

This is how Microsoft chose to stimulate sales in the product category (ultralight laptops), but this category is increasingly being overshadowed by Apple's laptops and tablets equipped with Apple Silicon.

WWDC's keynote address introduced Apple's AI approach, called Apple Intelligence, which mainly features AI on devices. It takes advantage of Apple's extensive experience with its own neural engine. The Neural Engine has been a feature of every Apple chip since the A11 Bionic.

Apple emphasizes in-device AI, which can better protect user privacy and security. By processing artificial intelligence (AI) tasks within the device, it can more effectively ensure users' privacy and security, which forms its own advantage.

Apple Intelligenc also leverages the shared memory architecture of Apple Silicon Macs' M-series chips. Since GPUs have the potential to access up to 128 GB of memory space (on M3 Max), this allows GPUs to be used in conjunction with Neural Engines as accelerators to generate AI.

Also, Apple is not trying to use Apple Intelligence's new features to force hardware upgrades. Apple Intelligence will work with all M-series Macs, all M-series iPads, Vision Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro with A17 processor.

The functionality of Apple Intelligence is very similar to that of Copilot + PC, and Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI, which will further advance the development of artificial intelligence technology and bring users a more advanced experience.

Currently, competition for artificial intelligence is becoming more intense, and Apple and Microsoft rank among the highest in the world in terms of market capitalization. The two have different strategies for the development of artificial intelligence, and they also have their own advantages. Apple placed special emphasis on the advantages of AI in devices through its AI strategy announced at its Global Developers Conference, while Microsoft continues to rely on its strong cloud computing infrastructure and collaboration with OpenAI to enhance its AI capabilities.

Today, Apple has returned to number one in market capitalization, which also shows that people have confidence in the development of artificial intelligence. Although Microsoft has temporarily declined, its future development potential cannot be ignored, and investors can continue to pay attention to their future development.