Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) At Its Peak Worth $200 Billion More Than Apple Inc. (AAPL) At Its Peak Now

Apple Inc. (NADSAQ:AAPL) is currently the world’s largest company with over $682 billion market cap. Apple has seen an unforgettable 2014, with share prices soaring to new high and increased by more than 45% in 2014. Meanwhile another tech giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) faced a similar purple patch in 1999, when it was classified as the world’s largest company. A ‘Quartz’ article compared both the companies at its peak.

So far in 2014, S&P 500 was up by only 12%, but Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s shares has gone up by 45%, which indicates that the company has had a very good year with very successful iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus launches. Apple’s market cap of $682 billion is way ahead of the second and third largest companies, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which has market cap of less than $400 billion.

So can we conclude from this that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the world’s largest company with highest market cap ever, since Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) could only hit as high as $613 billion in 1999. But one important thing to keep in mind is that Microsoft hit market cap of more than $600 billion in 1999.

During 1999, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was at its peak, and had a market cap of around $613 billion, which when inflation-adjusted was much higher than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s current market cap. Inflation-adjusted Microsoft’s market cap from 1999, turns out to be around $873 billion in 2015. This is nearly $200 billion more than Apple’s current market cap.

So when compared at its high, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) beats Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) hands down. So we cannot claim that Apple Inc. (NADSAQ:AAPL) is the world’s largest company with highest market cap ever. Apple had to go a long way up to beat Microsoft at its peak.

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