Apple just tagged the $4-trillion mark, getting a brief taste of a valuation club previously occupied only by Microsoft and Nvidia. But while those two companies rode the generative AI hype train all the way to the bank, Apple got there the old-fashioned way: by selling a metric ton of new phones.

The catalyst for the jump was a new report from Counterpoint Research showing the iPhone 17 series is, apparently, a certified hit. According to the market-research firm, sales jumped 14% year-over-year during the first 10 days of availability in the crucial United States and China markets. Consumers are reportedly snapping up both the base iPhone 17 and the high-end iPhone 17 Pro. In a fun twist, Apple’s new iPhone Air, which booted the long-suffering “Plus” model from the lineup, is also slightly outselling its predecessor.

It’s a massive win for a company that saw its stock tumble earlier this year amid worries about slowing China sales and AI product delays. The iPhone, it seems, is still enough to excite Wall Street.

The $4T phone company

Before you assume the iPhone 17 has solved all of Apple’s problems, analysts are already tapping the brakes. The stock retreated below the $4-trillion mark after briefly touching it, and the sales data might be cooling.

Jefferies analyst Edison Lee said that the initial sales frenzy is calming down. Delivery lead times — your wait time after ordering — are getting shorter across the six major markets they track. In the U.S., you can now get an iPhone 17 Pro with zero lead time, a stark contrast to the shipping estimate nightmares of previous launches.

The iPhone is still the undisputed king of Apple’s balance sheet, pulling in $201.2 billion of the company’s $391 billion in total 2024 revenue. Its next biggest segment, Services, brought in $96.2 billion. It’s a hardware beast.

The AI elephant in the room

This entire episode perfectly captures the weird tension at Apple right now. It just hit a $4-trillion valuation — a milestone it pioneered when it hit $1 trillion in 2018, $2 trillion in 2020, and $3 trillion in 2022 — yet it’s the third company to get there this time.

Nvidia and Microsoft beat Apple to the punch, fueled entirely by an AI boom that Apple has conspicuously missed. While Samsung and Google are busy injecting “Galaxy AI” and “Gemini” into every available pixel, Apple’s highly anticipated AI-powered Siri is still missing in action.

The market has proven it’s willing to reward Apple for what it does best: sell beautiful, expensive hardware. As Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote, “It’s clear to us that [CEO Tim] Cook & Co. has finally found success with iPhone 17.” But he immediately pivots to what everyone is really waiting for: “Now the Street awaits for the grand strategic AI roadmap to be unveiled.”

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