Mixed fortunes for tech stocks sees Nvidia dethroned, Musk’s personal wealth slips below $700B
Two of the most closely watched names in the tech sector moved in starkly opposite directions on Monday amid a wider recalibration reshaping technology portfolios across Wall Street.
Apple reclaimed the title of the world's most valuable publicly traded company as its stock closed at a record high with shares up more than 1%, pushing the iPhone maker's market capitalization to roughly $4.94 trillion.
Nvidia, which had held the top spot since June 2025, saw its shares fall 5%, reducing its market cap to approximately $4.75 trillion. The passing of the crown was more than symbolic: it landed on the same day that semiconductor stocks extended a punishing slide that has rattled investor confidence in the AI trade broadly.
The twin moves crystallized a growing divide between companies rewarded for capital discipline and those that bet heavily on speculative infrastructure, a divide that financial advisors are increasingly being asked to navigate on behalf of clients.
A market splitting in two
Looking at the broader market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 262.83 points, or 0.51%, to close at 52,210.08; The S&P 500 added just 0.02%, closing at 7,413.18; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.18% and settled at 24,932.08, as semiconductor stocks were down broadly.
The selling pressure has carried into Tuesday with US tech stocks losing before the bell as a sell-off in Korean memory makers highlighted concerns about AI circular financing deals. Contracts on the Nasdaq-100 fell 0.9%, while those on the S&P 500 dropped 0.2%. South Korea's Kospi tumbled over 10% as investors dumped shares in top memory chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which sank more than 14% and 13%, respectively.
Sentiment on the AI trade has soured amid reports that Nvidia is exploring a $250 billion funding backstop for OpenAI, further intertwining the two companies and heightening worries about circular financing. Tech traders also grew nervous that Chinese competition is narrowing the AI gap with US companies, undermining prospects for a payoff.
Apple's disciplined AI strategy pays off
Apple's ascent is the mirror image of the chip sector's distress. Apple shares have climbed more than 22% year to date, outperforming the Magnificent Seven group, as investors increasingly view the company's restrained AI spending as a strength rather than a weakness.
Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said Apple had been "able to avoid some of those capex pitfalls" — a reference to the massive AI infrastructure commitments made by rivals that have yet to translate into commensurate earnings growth.
Apple is also preparing to release its fiscal third-quarter 2026 financial results, and investor confidence ahead of that report has helped sustain momentum. The company will report for the first time some of the financial impacts from the AI-driven global memory chip shortage, which forced it to raise Mac and iPad prices in June 2026, according to CNBC.
Musk's fortune and the SpaceX correction
As Apple gains, the woes for SpaceX in the wake of its high-frenzy IPO as intensifying. SpaceX shares dropped 4.8% to around $109.50, extending a 50% plunge for the stock since hitting an all-time high on June 16.
Elon Musk, whose SpaceX holdings include approximately 4.8 billion shares and another 350 million stock options, saw his net worth cut by $29.5 billion to $695.7 billion on Monday, according to Forbes.
Musk's fortune last ended a trading session below $700 billion on December 18, 2025. According to Forbes, approximately $750 billion has been erased from his net worth since hitting a peak of $1.45 trillion on June 16 — around $116 billion of which reflects Forbes' removal of Tesla options based on new vesting conditions agreed to by Musk and the automaker. Musk acknowledged the shift himself, writing "(Former) trillionaire" on X in an apparent nod to his declining fortune.
SpaceX's declining stock value came even after the firm's successful test launch of its Starship rocket on Friday. JPMorgan analyst Seth Seifman wrote in a note earlier in the week there would be "plenty to analyze" from the latest Starship launch, though the firm expected "progress and setbacks" across dozens of more launches through 2027.
Morgan Stanley analysts wrote that a decline below $100 per share would imply investors see no value in SpaceX's AI business — and noted that some already assign "zero or negative value" as the firm accelerates spending on space and connectivity with "largely uncertain economics," according to Forbes.
The contrast between Apple's disciplined capital model and the chip sector's volatility underscores that AI enthusiasm alone is no longer sufficient to sustain valuations. Markets are increasingly asking whether the infrastructure buildout will generate returns commensurate with the capital deployed — and the answers remain unclear.
