AI Boom Adds Trillions to Tech Giants as Apple, Nvidia and Samsung Surge

The world's largest technology companies added hundreds of billions of dollars in market value during May, as investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, strong earnings outlooks, and growing demand for advanced semiconductors continued to drive stock prices higher.

Among the biggest gainers were Apple, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix, which collectively added nearly $2 trillion in market capitalisation over the month.

Apple led the pack, adding $598 billion in market value to reach a valuation of $4.58 trillion. The rally followed the company's strong earnings outlook in late April, when it highlighted robust demand for the iPhone 17 and MacBook Neo while announcing a fresh $100 billion share buyback programme.

AI Memory Makers Continue Their Rise

The AI infrastructure boom also continued to benefit memory chip manufacturers. Micron Technology added $512 billion in market value, pushing its valuation to $1.09 trillion. The company recently said its 2026 high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip supply was already fully booked, while production of its next-generation HBM4 memory chips had begun.

South Korean semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix also posted substantial gains. Samsung added $481 billion in market value to reach $1.10 trillion after reporting an eightfold jump in first-quarter operating profit, while SK Hynix gained $377 billion to hit a valuation of $1.34 trillion.

The strong performance highlights how AI-related demand is increasingly benefiting not only GPU makers such as Nvidia but also the companies supplying the advanced memory needed to power AI servers and data centres.

Nvidia and Microsoft Extend Their Lead

Nvidia and Microsoft also continued their upward march. Nvidia added $276 billion in market value during May, taking its valuation to $5.11 trillion and reinforcing its position as the world's most valuable company. The chipmaker recently forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations and announced an $80 billion share repurchase programme.

Microsoft gained $315 billion over the same period, lifting its market capitalisation to $3.35 trillion as investors continued to bet on the company's growing AI business and cloud infrastructure expansion.

Notably, Alphabet was the only member of the world's largest technology companies that did not participate in the rally.

Not Every Industry Benefited

While technology stocks surged, companies outside the AI boom faced a different reality.

Among the world's 20 most valuable companies, banking giant JPMorgan Chase recorded the largest decline in market value during May, losing $130.5 billion to end the month at $921 billion. Retail giant Walmart also saw its valuation fall by $37.3 billion to $802 billion.

The contrast reflects how investor attention remains heavily focused on AI-related opportunities, with companies tied to semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, and AI computing continuing to attract the largest inflows of capital.