Apple Inc. became the world's first publicly traded company valued at $1 trillion in 2018.
Apple reached the milestone on August 2, 2018, when its share price and outstanding shares put its market capitalization above $1 trillion during trading. The company’s strong iPhone sales, growing services business, and investor confidence helped drive its valuation.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company’s share price by the number of shares outstanding. It differs from revenue, profit, or the total value of all a company’s assets. Because share prices change constantly, market-cap records can move from day to day.
Apple was later joined by other technology companies at the trillion-dollar level, including Microsoft and Amazon. A common mix-up is confusing Apple’s 2018 milestone with Saudi Aramco’s later public-market valuation record or with Apple’s achievement of becoming the first company to reach other market-cap thresholds.