A widespread decline in the price of technology equities has caused Apple to fall from its perch as the most valuable business in the world.

For the first time in over two years, Saudi Arabian oil and gas company Aramco has recaptured the top rank from Apple’s iPhone manufacturer. This is the longest period of time since Aramco has held the top spot.

As part of their transition towards what they see as assets with lower levels of risk, investors have started dumping their stakes in technology companies.

3, along with the majority of other major cryptocurrencies and digital assets, has continued its precipitous decline.

Apple’s shares saw a decline of more than 5 percent in New York City trading on Wednesday, and the company finished the day with a market capitalization of $2.37 trillion (£1.94 trillion).

As a result, it was dethroned from its perch as the most valuable corporation in the world and replaced by Aramco, a producer of oil and gas with a valuation of $2.42 trillion.

For the first time in many months, price increases in the US have slowed.

After 21 years, Apple has decided to no longer produce the iPod.

Since its all-time high in November, the value of bitcoin has fallen by half.

Since the year 2020, this is the very first time that Aramco has been in first place. This year, the increase in the price of crude oil and natural gas has led to a rise in the value of the shares of companies that generate energy.

A general sell-off in technology companies has resulted in a decrease of about 20 percent in the value of Apple’s share price since the beginning of the year.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq ended trading in New York on Wednesday 3.2 percent down as official statistics revealed that inflation in the United States remained close to a level that has not been seen in more than 40 years.

As the world recovers from the Covid-19 epidemic, the recovery of the global economy faces a number of challenges, the most significant of which is the rise in costs.

As a response to the issue, central banks throughout the globe have increased interest rates, which has resulted in a shift away from riskier investments due to worries that the greater cost of borrowing may slow down economic development.

As a result of a decline in the value of its technological assets, Japan’s SoftBank Group said on Thursday that its Vision Fund company suffered a record loss of $26.2 billion.

In sharp contrast to last year, when the firm set a new annual profit record, this year’s results showed a loss for the business.

Since then, the value of a number of the businesses in which SoftBank has holdings, like as the ride-hailing giants Didi and Grab, has dropped significantly.

The flight from what are generally seen to be hazardous assets contributed, as well, to the price of bitcoin falling below $27,000.

Since reaching an all-time high in November of the previous year, the value of the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency in the world has now dropped by around 60 percent.

Ether, the digital token that is connected to the Ethereum blockchain network, also saw a significant loss of value and is currently down more than 40 percent in the last week.

Effects of the pandemic

Apple was the first business to reach a stock market value of $3 trillion (£2.2 trillion) when it did it in January. It was one of the major winners of the pandemic, since coronavirus lockdowns led to an increase in expenditure on various technological devices.

According to figures provided by the World Bank, the record indicated that Apple’s worth was larger than the size of the GDP of the United Kingdom, which was $2.76 trillion.

As individuals grew increasingly dependent on their cellphones, tablets, and computers during lockdowns, demand skyrocketed for the products manufactured by the largest technology businesses in the globe. The value of Apple’s shares on the market increased from $2 trillion to $3 trillion in a little over 16 months’ time.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian oil behemoth Saudi Aramco has reaped the benefits of the recent increase in the price of energy.

Saudi Arabia is the most productive member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), and Saudi Aramco more than quadrupled its net profit from $49 billion in 2020 to $110 billion in 2021.

The reopening of economies after epidemic measures resulted in a substantial surge in energy costs in 2021, and this year’s conflict in Ukraine has driven prices even higher as nations look for alternatives to Russia for their supply needs.