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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Business
Hazel Sheffield

Google to overtake Apple as the biggest company in the world

Google is to report its financial results on February 1 and for the first time give a glimpse at just how much money the company is throwing at so-called "moonshots", or dream projects like smart houses and driverless cars.

If those results exceed expectations, they could push Google's market value above the world's biggest company, Apple.

Apple's has lost more than $200 billion in value in six months as investors have grown increasingly worried that the company's growth has stalled.

Many of these fears focus on iPhone sales, which are still growing, but at a slower pace. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said he expected sales to decline in the next quarter.

The picture for investors has got murkier and they, looking for a safe place to put their cash, have chosen to go elsewhere.

The opposite is true of Google. The creation of a Alphabet has allowed Google to separate its main business as a search engine from ambitious new projects including driverless cars, internet balloons and smart homes.

Nearly all of Alphabet's revenue comes from Google. But the results on February 1 will be the first glimpse at how much "moonshots" cost.

This transparency could add up to $24 billion the Alphabet's market value, or more than twice the value of Twitter, according to some analysts.

At close on Friday, Google shares were worth $517 billion and Apple shares $540 billion - just 4 per cent more.

An extra $24 billion in market value would push it above Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.

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