Apple retakes crown from Microsoft as most valued company in the world on self-driving car rumours

We reported on Thursday that Apple was confident that they could deliver an electric car in 2025 and that this car would be a self-driving lounge on wheels.

The market appears to have reacted very positively to this somewhat fanciful idea, adding 1.7% or $50 billion to the company’s valuation, allowing it to retake the crown as the most valued company in the world, with a market cap of $2.63 Trillion dollars.

Most recently Microsoft briefly held the position from the 29th of October following a better than expected earnings report.

The response to the news is mostly related to Apple’s very good track record of stepping into what appears to be already mature markets and taking the most valuable segment of that market. Examples of course include laptops, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and wireless earbuds.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote that the Bloomberg report which sparked the run-up was “the first press report to include a broad number of data points sourced to Apple insiders and provides enough reported detail to potentially lend credibility to the idea that Apple’s Car launch could both accelerate adoption of new technology (EV + AV) and expand the addressable market similar to past Apple product launches.”

“We can provide a number of examples from the last 20 years that show while Apple may not always be first to market, its innovation engine, differentiation via vertical integration, and manufacturing/operational excellence have allowed it to leapfrog first movers,” Huberty wrote.

She said Apple’s entry into the car market was the “clearest path” for Apple to double its revenue and market cap.

At the time of writing, Apple was up a further 0.3% in after-hours trading.