Microsoft's big bet on cloud computing is paying off as the company has surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable publicly traded company.

微软在云计算业务上的豪赌正在取得回报，目前该公司已超越苹果公司，成为全球市值最高的上市公司。

The software maker's prospects looked bleak just afew years ago, as licenses for the company's Windows system fell with a sharp drop in sales of personal computers.

就在几年前，这家软件制造商的市场前景还不被人看好，随着个人电脑销量的大幅度下滑，微软正版的Windows操作系统安装量也随之有所下滑。

But under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has found stability by focusing on software and services over the internet, or the cloud, with long-term business contracts.

但在首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉的领导下，微软与许多合作伙伴签署了长期的商业合作合同，专攻软件和互联网服务，即云服务，逐渐稳定下来。

 

 

That 1990s personal-computing powerhouse is now having a renaissance moment, as it eclipses Facebook, Google, Amazon and the other tech darlings of the late decade.

20世纪90年代的微软是电脑行业一把手，如今它正在东山再起，近10年，它超越脸书、谷歌、亚马逊和其他科技公司。

Apple had been the world's most prosperous firm since claiming the top spot from Exxon Mobilearlier this decade.

苹果公司自从本世纪初从Exxon Mobil手中夺下榜首以来，一直是全球最繁荣的上市公司之一。

Microsoft surpassed Apple briefly a few times last week, but didn't close on top until last Friday, with a market value of $851 billion to Apple's $847 billion. Microsoft hadn't been at the top since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000.

虽然微软公司的市值在上周也曾短暂的超越过苹果几次，但在上周五收盘时，微软公司终于以8510亿美元的市值正式超越苹果8470亿美元的市值。自2000年互联网热潮达到顶峰以来，微软一直没有登上过榜首。

Microsoft became a contender again in large part because Apple's stock fell nearly 20 percent in November, while Microsoft hasn't done any worse than the rest of the stock market.

微软再次成为一个有力竞争者，很大程度上是因为苹果的股价在11月份下跌了近20%，而微软相较股市上其他公司来说则没有变得更糟。