Has the AI "asset-light" strategy paid off? Apple (AAPL.US) surpasses NVIDIA (NVDA.US) to reclaim global No. 1, while SpaceX (SPCX.US) drops the equivalent of a Tesla

According to Zhitong Finance APP, on Monday, Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) overtook Nvidia (NVDA.US) at market close, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable company for the first time since April 2025. The iPhone maker ended the day with a market capitalization of $4.95 trillion, while the AI chip giant Nvidia’s value stood at $4.77 trillion—a gap of about $180 billion.

Nvidia’s share price plunged 5% on Monday, dragging its market cap down to $4.77 trillion. The AI chip sector as a whole was under pressure, mainly due to investor concerns about the high costs associated with large-scale investment in AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, Apple’s share price rose by 1%, raising its market cap to $4.95 trillion, as the market eagerly awaits its much-anticipated earnings report scheduled for Thursday.

Since snatching the market cap crown from Microsoft in June 2025, Nvidia had held the top spot, and briefly touched the $5 trillion mark last October.

Since the beginning of 2026, Nvidia’s stock is up only 4% in total, whereas Apple has surged by 24%. Apple has significantly outperformed the broader market, with its leading logic being the investor approval of its restrained AI capital expenditure strategy—Apple prefers renting computing power over building its own infrastructure, which has instilled confidence in the market over its fiscal discipline.

Although Nvidia has benefitted from explosive AI-driven growth for three consecutive years, many investors are now shifting focus from graphics processing units (GPUs) to memory chips and other data center infrastructure—fields also fueled by the AI boom, with representative companies such as Micron Technology (MU.US), SK Hynix (SKHY.US), and SanDisk (SNDK.US).

Apple will release its third-quarter earnings on Thursday. The market expects the company to disclose, for the first time, the specific financial impact of the global memory chip shortage driven by AI demand—a shortage that has forced Apple to increase prices for its Mac and iPad product lines in June.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has continued its downward spiral; since reaching a record high of $225.64 in June, SpaceX’s market cap has wiped out over $1.2 trillion—an amount almost equivalent to the entire market value of Elon Musk’s other company, Tesla. Tesla shares have recently hit their lowest point in nearly a year. On Monday, SpaceX posted its 13th decline in nearly 16 trading days, dropping more than 1% to close at $113.50.

Although the balance of bullish and bearish forces in the options market is becoming more even, the largest individual options trades in SpaceX on Monday were neutral or slightly bullish. Small speculators continued to buy large quantities of nearly impossible-to-profit call options, hoping the plummeting stock would rapidly rebound and even double in value.

In terms of trading volume, put options were more active on Monday, with 106,000 calls and 77,000 puts traded throughout the day. However, of the total $442 million in options premiums, the bulk came from puts. The most actively traded contract was the $330 strike price call expiring this Friday, with a premium of only $0.10. According to ThinkOrSwim data, this contract has only about a 0.3% chance of profit.

According to Cboe LiveVol, four of the five largest premium transactions were neutral or bullish. This included two large-scale put spread sales, one of which was an in-the-money put spread worth over a million dollars, requiring a SpaceX share rebound to be profitable; another trader sold 5,200 puts (strike $100, expiring October 16) and simultaneously bought 7,000 puts (strike $85, same expiry), collecting a total of $1.8 million in premiums.

“As investors, now is still too early; but as traders, Wall Street is punishing AI stocks that are too aggressive with capital spending,” said Charles Moon, technology and momentum strategist at Chicago’s Prosper Trading Academy.

One thing is certain: SpaceX is currently providing the wildest roller coaster action in the market for traders. Although earnings reports generally reduce volatility, that may not be the case after next week—SpaceX’s first earnings report since its IPO will initiate the lock-up period release window. Investors will be able to sell up to 20% of their eligible locked shares, totaling up to 911.5 million shares, from the second full trading day after the earnings release (August 6).

“I don’t think SpaceX’s lock-up release pressure will be as severe as the market fears,” said Moon, “but it’s also not going to provide any support for the share price.”