Apple Inc (AAPL  ) became the first public company to pass the $1 trillion and $3 trillion market capitalization milestones.

The company is now one of three that are nearing the lucrative $4 trillion mark. A new poll predicts whether Apple will be the first to pass this new milestone.

What Happened: While Apple has been the first American company to pass many of the market capitalization milestones, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA  ) has gained significant value in recent years and is currently the most valuable public company.

At the end of June, there were three publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of $3 trillion or more that would be the most likely to hit the $4 trillion milestone. Here are the companies and their market caps at the end of June:

  • Nvidia Corporation: $3.852 trillion
  • Microsoft Corporation (MSFT  ): $3.697 trillion
  • Apple: $3.064 trillion
Benzinga recently polled social media followers to see which company they believe will hit the $4 trillion market capitalization first.

"Which company do YOU think will be the first to reach a $4 trillion market cap?" Benzinga asked.

The results on Instagram were:

  • Nvidia: 79%
  • Microsoft: 14%
  • Apple: 7%
Benzinga ran the same poll on Threads, with readers having the following results:

  • Nvidia: 79%
  • Microsoft: 17%
  • Apple: 4%
Overall, Nvidia significantly won the polls with nearly 80% of the vote, ranking well ahead of the other two companies. This result comes with Nvidia currently in the market capitalization lead, but often trading places with Microsoft in recent months.

Why It's Important: Nvidia also wins the poll with the most significant return over the last one year and five years. Here are the current year-to-date, one-year, and five-year returns of the three companies based on June 30 prices.

Compare those returns to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY  ), which tracks the S&P 500. The ETF is up 5.7% year-to-date and has returned 13.3% over the last year and 97.9% over the last five years.

Nvidia has rapidly risen in value and just became a $1 trillion company in May 2023. In less than two years after hitting that milestone, the company was the most valuable in the world.

Another recent Benzinga poll asked readers to pick which magnificent seven stock they would invest $1,000 in for the next 18 years, based on President Donald Trump's proposal for $1,000 investing accounts for newborns.

Nvidia won that poll with 21% of the vote. Apple ranked second with 17% and Microsoft tied for fifth place with 12% of the vote.

Nvidia continues to be a favorite stock among retail investors, with AI continuing to be a large theme and companies looking to the semiconductor company for new chips and products to help them grow in the sector.