Apple priced in gold: 25 years of a great business in real terms

The dollar chart

In USD, Apple has gone from a split-adjusted ~$0.30 in 2000 to over $200 in 2024 — a ~700x return. It looks like a near-perfect compounder.

The gold chart

Priced in gold, Apple's story is more honest:

- 2000–2003: collapse with the dot-com bust, made worse by gold rallying - 2004–2012: explosive real outperformance — the iPod, iPhone and iPad era - 2012–2016: a multi-year drawdown in gold terms even as the USD chart kept climbing - 2016–2021: a second great real bull market, peaking around early 2022 - 2022–2024: roughly flat to down in gold terms despite new dollar highs

The takeaway

A lot of what looks like Apple "going up" since 2022 is the dollar going down. The business is still excellent, but the share price in real terms has been treading water. This is exactly the kind of insight you can't see on a regular chart.