Apple shares climbed more than 7% to a record high on Tuesday by market close, a day after presenting new artificial intelligence features meant to increase the appeal of its devices, including the iPhone, under the umbrella of “Apple Intelligence”.
The rally comes as a breather for the stock, which has underperformed versus the benchmark S&P 500 this year, as Apple grapples with weak sales for its premium consumer gadgets. Apple stands to add the better part of $200bn to its market value if the current stock price of $207 holds.
At $3.18tn, its market capitalization is tens of billions shy of Microsoft’s, the world’s most valuable company. Nvidia, the largest benefactor of a boom in AI applications and number three in terms of market value, is at $2.97tn.
At its annual developer event that kicked off on Monday, Apple revealed an improved Siri virtual assistant that can answer a wider range of queries and accomplish more complicated tasks than earlier, and several AI features across its apps that will be shipped with the latest operating systems for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.
At least 13 analysts raised their price targets on Apple’s shares after the developer event, and said the latest features could encourage a cascade of new purchases as the company prepares to announce a new line of iPhones in autumn.
“Apple is demonstrating that it is invested in evolving its platform and devices to enable the next era of computing, interfaces and experiences,” Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen said.