Apple Inc. became the first publicly traded US company to reach a market capitalization of US$1 trillion in 2018.
Apple crossed the threshold on August 2, 2018, during trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company’s share price by its number of outstanding shares, so the milestone reflected both Apple’s enormous scale and the market’s valuation of its future earnings.
Apple’s rise was driven by the iPhone, introduced in 2007, along with the growth of the Mac, iPad, services, and wearable-device businesses. The company had previously passed major valuation landmarks, including US$500 billion and US$750 billion.
The milestone is sometimes confused with the first company worldwide to reach US$1 trillion. PetroChina briefly touched that level in 2007 on its Shanghai debut, although its valuation quickly fell. Apple’s 2018 achievement is specifically the first sustained US-company milestone commonly cited in modern market-cap history.