June 12 (Reuters) - U.S. technology firm Apple ( AAPL )

has become the first brand to cross $1 trillion in brand value,

a 15% jump from last year, a global ranking by Kantar's BrandZ

showed on Wednesday.

The iPhone maker retained its crown as the world's most

valuable brand for the third straight year in 2024, followed by

Alphabet's Google at $753 billion and Microsoft ( MSFT )

at $713 billion, Kantar said.

Earlier this week, Apple ( AAPL ) unveiled new AI features, which are

expected to rekindle demand for iPhones and reverse a sales

decline for its biggest-selling product due to choppy consumer

spending and resurgent tech rivals.

With a market capitalization of $3.18 trillion, Apple ( AAPL ) was

just behind Microsoft ( MSFT ) at $3.22 trillion, and ahead of AI chip

powerhouse Nvidia ( NVDA ) at $2.97 trillion.

Surfing a wave of AI enthusiasm and a boom in chip demand,

Nvidia ( NVDA ) has entered for the first time Kantar's list of top 10

most valuable brands in the world.

Its brand value nearly tripled to over $200 billion from a

year earlier, making Nvidia ( NVDA ) the sixth most valuable brand, the

consulting company said.

"What really sets Nvidia ( NVDA ) apart is the faith that retail and

institutional investors alike have in the firm's centrality to

the biggest disruptive narratives in tech - innovations like

generative AI, autonomous mobility, and spatial computing,"

Kantar said.

The consulting firm said its research covered over 4.3

million consumer interviews in 532 categories, and 21,000

different brands in 54 markets.