Microsoft surpasses Apple as most valuable public company

Microsoft’s big bet on cloud computing paid off as the company has surpassed Apple, as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has found stability by focusing on software and services over the internet, or the cloud, with long-term business contracts. The company is now having a renaissance movement. Earlier, Apple had been the world’s most prosperous firm, and Microsoft hadn’t been at the top since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. Microsoft lost its sheen as people were shunning PCs in favor of smartphones. But a turnaround began when the Redmond, Washington, company promoted Nadella as CEO in 2014. Cloud computing now accounts for more than a quarter of Microsoft’s revenue.