The world’s most valuable technology companies with the exception of Alphabet added billions of dollars in market value in May, as upbeat earnings outlooks and strong demand for AI chips fuelled a rally in their shares.
Apple AAPL-Q, memory chipmakers Micron Technology MU-Q, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the gains, adding US$598-billion, US$512-billion, US$481-billion and US$377-billion, respectively, in market value. Their valuations rose to US$4.58-trillion, US$1.09-trillion, US$1.10-trillion and US$1.34-trillion, respectively.
In late April, Apple pointed to strong demand for its flagship iPhone 17 and MacBook Neo and announced a fresh US$100-billion share buyback. Samsung reported an eightfold jump in first-quarter operating profit in April, while Micron drew analyst upgrades after saying its 2026 high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips were already sold out and next-generation HBM4 products were in production.
Microsoft MSFT-Q and Nvidia NVDA-Q also gained, with their market values rising by US$315-billion and US$276-billion, respectively, to US$3.35-trillion and US$5.11-trillion. Nvidia forecast second-quarter revenue above expectations in May and announced an US$80-billion share repurchase program.
Bucking the trend, Alphabet’s GOOGL-Q market value dropped US$59.77-billion to US$4.59-trillion.
In the world’s 20 most valuable companies including other sectors, banking group JPMorgan Chase JPM-N and retailing giant Walmart WMT-N saw the biggest falls in market capitalization in May, by US$130.47-billion and US$37.3-billion, respectively, to US$921-billion and US$802-billion.