Microsoft's big bet on cloud computing¹ 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 prospects² looked bleak³ just a few years ago, as licenses⁴ 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 renaissance⁵ 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 Mobil earlier 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 briefly⁶ 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。