The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Apple is closing in on a historic $4-trillion stock-market valuation, powered by investors cheering progress in the company's long-awaited artificial-intelligence features to rejuvenate sluggish iPhone sales (all figures U.S.). A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says the company has pulled ahead of Nvidia and Microsoft in the race to the monumental milestone, thanks to a 16-per-cent jump in shares since early November that has added about $500-billion to its market capitalization. The latest rally in Apple shares reflects "investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and an expectation that it will result in a supercycle of iPhone upgrades," said Tom Forte at Maxim Group, who has a "hold" rating. Valued at about $3.86-trillion as of the last close, Apple dwarfs the combined value of Germany and Switzerland's main stock markets. The Silicon Valley company, driven by the so-called iPhone supercycles, was the first U.S. stock to hit previous trillion-dollar milestones. In recent years, Apple has attracted criticism for being slow to map out its AI strategy, while Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta have pulled ahead to dominate the emerging technology.