Russell 1000 news: Apple dethroned by Microsoft for first time in four years

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Written on May 27, 2024

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Recent changes to the Russell 1000 weighting of its top ten stocks shook the markets on Friday.
FTSE Russell said that Apple Inc lost 2% of its market cap in 2023, kicking it from the Russell 1000 top spot
Its crown was snatched by Microsoft instead, which grew its market cap by 26% in 2023.

On Friday, FTSE Russell announced latest news of the FTSE Russell indexes, including the Russell 1000 Index, Russell 2000 Index, and Russell Microcap Index.

The news was revealing – not least because of significant changes to the top three companies by market cap in the Russell 1000 index.

Apple loses number one spot to Microsoft

For the first time since 2020, Microsoft retook its crown as the largest company position in both the Russell 3000 and Russell 1000 Indexes, dethroning Apple from the top spot.

While Microsoft Corporation increased its market capitalization by almost 27% in the past year, rising to $2893.6 billion, Apple Inc. actually lost market cap, falling 2% to $2630 billion.

Nvidia beats out Google

The mighty Alphabet, parent company to Google, was relegated from third to fourth place, as Nvidia moved up the ranks into third place.

Nvidia’s market cap size skyrocketed more than 250% from sixth place in 2023, with a market cap of $685.4 billion, to $2160.1 billion in 2024.

In general, the list showed a strengthening of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ stocks even further, with the hallowed group increasing their combined total market capitalization by almost half – 43.5% to $13.2 trillion, up from last year’s $9.2 trillion.

Tesla kicked to the bottom

However, the massive exception among the Magnificent Seven was Tesla, which fell from eight place in 2023 to tenth place in 2024.

At $584.5 billion market cap in 2024 as opposed to $520.8 billion in 2023, Tesla represented the second smallest increase of the top 10, with a 12.2% climb in the past year – second only to Apple as the ‘biggest loser’.

ExxonMobil, Visa exit the top 10

Two major companies left the Russell 1000 top ten too: energy megacorp ExxonMobil and payment systems gian Visa.

They were replaced by new entrants Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company, in eighth place and Broadcom in ninth place.

In fact Broadcom, a semiconductor company, had the most significant jump of all the largest 10 companies, rising exponentially from 24^th place in 2023.