Apple on Tuesday became only the third company to break through the $4 trillion market value milestone.

Apple shares rose fractionally in early trading, just enough to briefly push the company’s value above the historic level. It ended the trading day at $3.99 trillion.

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Nvidia and Microsoft crossed the $4 trillion threshold in July. Nvidia’s market valuation has grown even more since then, hitting $4.88 trillion as of Tuesday's close.

Microsoft's value rose above the benchmark again Tuesday, at $4.03 trillion, driven by news that the Windows software maker's stake in OpenAI would be worth $135 billion .

Apple has lagged several of its Big Tech peers this year, with fears that its artificial intelligence efforts

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