Apple Reclaims World's Most Valuable Company Title From Nvidia as Shares Sink Nearly 5%

Nvidia shares fell roughly 4 to 5 percent on Friday, breaking below their 200-day moving average and pushing the stock down about 13.6 percent from its October 6 peak, putting it on course for its worst month in a year. The selloff was part of a broad chip rout ignited by Intel's post-earnings plunge of more than 25 percent, with AMD dropping around 10 percent and Broadcom falling nearly 4 percent. By the close of trading, Apple had reclaimed the title of world's most valuable company, with a market capitalization of approximately $5.03 trillion against Nvidia's $4.94 trillion, as investors rotated toward the iPhone maker amid cooling appetite for AI hardware spending.

Nvidia's own strategic moves added complexity to the session. According to The Information, the company is in talks to provide billions of dollars in credit guarantees to support cloud provider Nscale's $45 billion deal to build AI infrastructure for Anthropic, centered on a 460-megawatt data center. Separately, Indian AI infrastructure firm AM Intelligence is reportedly seeking to raise $3 billion in debt to purchase Nvidia's next-generation Rubin GPUs, with a plan to deploy 400 megawatts of compute capacity within two years. These moves extend Nvidia's pattern of acting as a financial backstop across the AI ecosystem, a role analysts have compared to that of a central bank for the AI boom, following the company's $3 billion investment in Meta's recent share sale.

A national security dimension also weighed on sentiment. The Wall Street Journal reported that US investigators concluded that Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman with close ties to CEO Jensen Huang, was suspected of gathering intelligence for Beijing, having been recruited in part because of her relationship with him. China's Foreign Ministry denied the allegations, calling them groundless and a smear. Separately, Nvidia faces Justice Department scrutiny over its roughly $13 billion in AI-related acquisitions. Jensen Huang also drew attention at a public appearance where he said the United States does not rank in the top three countries for manufacturing and advanced technology.

Despite the pressure, some analysts argued the selloff creates a buying opportunity. Barron's noted the stock is trading at its lowest level since early August and flagged that Nvidia's forward earnings multiple, at roughly 13 times out-year estimates, is modest compared with many large-cap peers. On October 28, ETFs recorded $682.3 million in net buying of Nvidia shares, though prominent investor Steve Weiss disclosed he sold most of his Nvidia position during the session.