Microsoft has become the second-ever $3 trillion company as the artificial intelligence boom sent the company's stock soaring, CNN reported.
By comparison, Microsoft's market value is now greater than the entire GDP of France and just behind that of the United Kingdom.
The company's stock rose nearly 1.5% to about $405 a share, pushing it past $3 trillion in market capitalization and joining Apple as the only other company to hit the all-time high.
Microsoft shares are up more than 7% year-to-date, after jumping about 40% last year, largely due to investor enthusiasm for AI and its potential to drive growth for the company .
In 2023, the company's CEO Satya Nadella made a multibillion-dollar investment in AI, including commercializing and adding AI tools like ChatGPT to its product suite ahead of competitors.
He even strengthened Microsoft's ties with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, a major AI pioneer, during the smaller company's board and management shakeup late last year.
After trailing Apple for most of the past decade, Microsoft overtook the company earlier in January to briefly become the world's most valuable publicly traded company.
Microsoft is part of the so-called "Magnificent 7," a group of stocks that includes Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Tesla that have almost single-handedly driven markets to new highs in recent weeks.
Microsoft alone makes up 7.3% of the S&P 500. Together, these 7 companies have a market capitalization larger than the entire stock market of any country except the US.
According to analysts at Bespoke Investment Group as of last week, Nvidia and Microsoft alone have contributed about 75% of the S&P 500's growth this year.
The company will report its fourth-quarter earnings on January 30. /BGNES
