Apple Inc. became the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization in August 2018.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company’s share price by its number of outstanding shares. Apple crossed the milestone on August 2, 2018, during trading on the Nasdaq stock market. Its achievement reflected decades of growth in personal computers, music players, smartphones, tablets, and services.
Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The iPhone, introduced in 2007, became the company’s most important product and helped transform Apple into one of the world’s most valuable businesses.
The milestone is sometimes confused with revenue or cash holdings. Market cap measures the stock market’s valuation of equity, not the money a company earns in one year or keeps in its accounts.