Microsoft briefly became the world’s most valuable listed company in November 2021 after passing a $2 trillion market capitalization.
Microsoft overtook Apple by market value during trading on October 29, 2021, and was widely reported as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company for a short period. Its market capitalization was above $2 trillion at the time.
The shift reflected investor enthusiasm for Microsoft’s cloud-computing business, especially Azure, as well as its enterprise software and recurring subscription revenue. Apple later regained the top position, illustrating how rankings can change with daily share-price movements.
“Most valuable company” usually means the company with the largest market capitalization among publicly traded firms. It does not necessarily mean the largest by sales, assets, employees, or profit. Private companies are also excluded from standard stock-market rankings because they do not have continuously quoted public shares.