June 2024: Nvidia's Crown, Solstice and 20 Business Days
June 2024 opened on a Saturday and closed on a Sunday, a 30-day month with ten weekend days and only 20 business days, the lightest working month of the quarter. Midmonth, the ledger tipped: on Tuesday, June 18, Nvidia passed Microsoft and Apple to close as the world's most valuable company, about $3.34 trillion. It happened eight days after Apple put Apple Intelligence at the heart of the iPhone.
A month framed by weekends
June 2024 opened on Saturday, June 1 and closed on Sunday, June 30, across weeks 22 to 26. It held five Saturdays and five Sundays, four of every other weekday, ten weekend days and 20 business days: the lightest working month of the quarter. For a month that starts on a Saturday, that is the honest arrangement.
The solstice arrived on Thursday, June 20, and the full moon followed on Saturday, June 22. New moon came June 6, first quarter June 14 and last quarter June 28.
The AI crown
At WWDC on Monday, June 10, Apple rebuilt Siri around generative AI and folded ChatGPT into iOS 18 under the name Apple Intelligence. Eight days later, Nvidia passed Microsoft and Apple to close as the world's most valuable company, about $3.34 trillion. A year of AI-chip demand had roughly tripled its market value.
Pixar's Inside Out 2 opened June 14 with about $295 million worldwide, the biggest animated opening in history. It went on to become the fastest animated film to $1 billion. Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion sold 5 million copies in three days from June 21. The machines had a good month; so did the feelings.
Ballots, boosters and heat
Boeing's Starliner flew its first crew on June 5, with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams riding an Atlas V to the space station. Thruster trouble would later stretch their brief test flight into a stay of many months. A day after launch, SpaceX's Starship completed its first full test flight, with booster and ship both splashing down.
The month voted three times. Mexico chose Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and its first woman president, on June 2. India counted on June 4: about 293 of 543 seats for Narendra Modi's alliance, a third term without a single-party majority. The European Parliament poll ran June 6 to 9 across 27 states, with turnout about 51 percent, a two-decade high.
Heat shadowed the count in the north. Delhi logged roughly 40 straight days at or above 40 C into late June, plus its hottest night on record. Hospitals treated heatstroke through the region.
Football's long summer
Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley on June 1 for a record 15th European crown. Euro 2024 opened across Germany on June 14, the hosts beating Scotland 5-1 in Munich. In Paris, Iga Swiatek won a fourth French Open on June 8 and Carlos Alcaraz his first on June 9.
India closed the month by winning the T20 World Cup by 7 runs over South Africa in Barbados on June 29, a first world title in 11 years.
June 2024 began on a Saturday and handed July a Sunday. In between, the world's most valuable company sold chips.