Microsoft has overtaken Apple to become the most valuable company in the world and the two companies are still battling it out for the top spot. 

This has come after a gruelling week for tech companies, where the stock for major tech companies has been recovering. Microsoft reached a valuation of $814 billion as of Tuesday, while Apple's cap was slightly less at $805 billion.

© Reuters

The two companies are still battling it out and Microsoft's rise could be credited to its continued traction with cloud computing. 

The last time Microsoft secured a lead over Apple was back in 2010 whereas Apple became the first company in the world to achieve a $1 trillion market cap earlier this year. 

Amazon shortly followed while Microsoft is yet to achieve that milestone. 

© Microsoft

Microsoft mainly caters to business which has attributed to the company's rising stock price, whereas investors have punished consumer-centric companies. Both Apple and Amazon are down 23 percent since the start of October. 

In the past, Microsoft fell behind Apple as computing needs moved from desktop computers to mobile devices such as the iPhone. 

This made Microsoft's dominance in the PC market null and resulted in a decline in stock price. Having said that, Microsoft now caters to businesses and even governments with its Azure cloud computing platform. 

According to Bloomberg “the rise of cloud computing changed Microsoft's fortunes about five years ago. Under Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, the company invested heavily in data centres and other infrastructure to run applications and store data for corporate customers.”

Microsoft is now second behind Amazon Web Services in the cloud computing business, which has resulted in making the company one of the most valuable companies in the world. 

Source: Bloomberg