Amazon stole Microsoft’s spot as the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company Monday morning with a market capitalization of $790 billion versus its competitor’s $785 billion, CNBC reports.
Microsoft had held the top spot since Nov. 28.
Adding insult to injury, this shift in rankings came the same day that Microsoft announced a new partnership with Kroger to create futuristic, digitally savvy grocery stores. This is a direct challenge to Amazon, which acquired Whole Foods in 2017 and has been rolling out brick-and-mortar, cashierless retail stores across the country.
In recent months, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon have been battling to be the world’s most valuable public company after years of dominance by Apple. November marked the first time that Microsoft had surpassed Apple in eight years amid concerns by investors about Apple’s growth.
Amazon takes gold to be No1 most valuable company with the highest market capitalisation. pic.twitter.com/RpIbRwknDh
— Iskandar Abdul Kadir (@Iskandarbak) January 7, 2019
Last week, CEO Tim Cook confirmed those worries by announcing that his company’s revenue would be lower than expected because of poor iPhone sales. Apple’s shares, which had been sliding for several months, took another hit and are now down nearly 36% from their peak in October.
On Monday, Apple wasn’t among the top three most valuable companies. Instead, Google parent Alphabet was third in third place with a $740 billion market value, significantly higher than Apple’s $694 billion.
Amazon has recently come off great holiday sales, but can it stay on top? Only time will tell.