CNBC Daily Open: Magnificent Seven competition heats up

CNBC Daily Open: Magnificent Seven competition heats up


A man walks past the Google signage outside the US tech giant’s Ananta office in Bengaluru, India, on Jan. 5, 2026.

Idrees Mohammed | Afp | Getty Images

There’s movement going on in the Magnificent Seven group of stocks.

Shares of Alphabet, the parent of Google, rose 2.4% on Wednesday, to give the firm a market capitalization of $3.89 trillion. Meanwhile, Apple, the parent of the iPhone (so to speak), retreated 0.8%, and ended the day with a capitalization of $3.85 trillion.

It’s the first time since 2019 that Alphabet has overtaken Apple in valuation, and another sign of how the Cupertino-based company is falling behind in the artificial intelligence race. Apple’s promised launch of a smarter Siri, its AI voice assistant, in 2025, was delayed, and still lacks a concrete release date.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s quickfire deployments of new AI models and generators have earned it more users and investor cheer, making it the best-performing stock among Big Tech last year.

Movement, on a more literal level, was a point of contention for Tesla and Nvidia. Jensen Huang, CEO of the semiconductor behemoth, announced Alpamayo, an AI reasoning model for developing self-driving vehicles, at the CES conference Monday.

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledges it as “maybe a competitive pressure on Tesla,” he added that it’ll only be a challenger in “5 or 6 years, but probably longer.”

For what it’s worth, it’s not the first time Musk has dismissed competitors. In October 2011, he said in an interview, “I don’t think [BYD has] a great product.” In 2025, BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles.

What you need to know today

And finally…

Sermitsiaq Mountain looms behind a row of houses in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 4, 2025.

Odd Andersen | Afp | Getty Images



Source

Micron stock sinks 10%, further cratering in post-earnings sell-off
World

Micron stock sinks 10%, further cratering in post-earnings sell-off

The Micron Technology offices in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Micron shares plummeted 10% on Monday, continuing the memory maker’s significant post-earnings sell-off. The company snapped a six-day slide on Friday with a modest gain, but with Monday’s loss, the stock is down […]

Read More
China suppliers warn of higher prices for Americans due to Strait of Hormuz closure
World

China suppliers warn of higher prices for Americans due to Strait of Hormuz closure

Pickleball paddle producer Devi Wei has a message for U.S. shoppers. “Americans will have to pay more,” the Chinese businessman told CNBC at a Beijing trade show last week at the China International Exhibition Center. Because of the recent swings in oil prices resulting from the Iran war and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, […]

Read More
Powell sees inflation outlook in check, no need to hike rates because of oil shock
World

Powell sees inflation outlook in check, no need to hike rates because of oil shock

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a wide-ranging talk at Harvard University, said Monday that he sees inflation expectations as grounded despite rising energy prices so the central bank doesn’t need to respond with higher interest rates. As his term leading the central bank nears an end, Powell avoided questions about the longer-term direction of […]

Read More