(Reuters) -Apple ( AAPL ) once again became the world's most valuable company on Wednesday, dethroning Microsoft ( MSFT ) from the top spot, as the iPhone maker pushed ahead in a race to dominate artificial intelligence technology.

Its shares rose more than 2% to $211.75, giving it a market valuation of $3.25 trillion. Microsoft's ( MSFT ) market capitalization stood at $3.24 trillion, falling behind Apple ( AAPL ) for the first time in five months.

Apple ( AAPL ) shares had surged to an all-time high in the previous session, a day after it unveiled a range of AI-enabled features and software enhancements for its devices, a move that several analysts said would power iPhone sales.

At Apple's ( AAPL ) annual developer conference on Monday, executives, including CEO Tim Cook, touted how voice assistant Siri would be able to interact with messages, emails, calendar as well as third-party apps.

The tech giant has trailed rivals such as Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Google-owner Alphabet in the red-hot field of AI, a reason why its shares underperformed this year compared to its peers.

Apple's ( AAPL ) shares are up about 10% so far in 2024, while Microsoft ( MSFT ) has added about 16% and Alphabet nearly 28%.

Some of the concerns over its weak share performance eased after Apple ( AAPL ) beat market expectations for quarterly results and forecast in May, and unveiled a record $110 billion buyback plan.

AI chip leader Nvidia ( NVDA ), which briefly overtook Apple's ( AAPL ) market value last week, is up a whopping 144% this year. Nvidia ( NVDA ) last had a market value of $3.06 trillion.

Tesla is the only other 'Magnificent Seven' stock that has fared worse than Apple ( AAPL ) this year, with a more than 30% slide.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)