Alphabet was the world’s most-valuable company for a moment

Apple is still the most-valuable publicly traded company in the world, but for a brief moment on Monday, that status went to Alphabet after it released its quarterly earnings report. The company’s shares went up to $554 billion before settling at $530, while Apple’s shares hovered at around $535. Even though Apple managed to hold on to its status for a bit longer, one look at Alphabet’s growth is all you need to know that Apple is dangerously close to being surpassed, and next time it’ll be for much longer, or maybe even permanently. 

Today was a huge day for Alphabet — the first day it finally broke out its “other bets” in its earnings report — and boy did the company not disappoint. The company smashed expectations on both ends, bringing in $21.3 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.67 per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of $8.09 on $20.8 billion in revenue. And with that, Alphabet became the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world — coming in at a market cap $558 billion after jumping about 8% after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings, and passing Apple, which sits at a market cap of $535 billion. There weren’t any huge surprises on the earnings call that caused the stock to dip, but its ranking still depends on whether or not the company gives up those gains in extended trading. Either way this is a significant moment for the company and the technology market in general. Alphabet had a huge opportunity to finally pass Apple as the most valuable company in the world. There’s a clear narrative here. Alphabet, a software company with a few extra hardware bets, shares have dramatically outperformed those of Apple, a hardware company with a few extra software bets.