Apple became the first public company valued at $2 trillion during trading in August 2020.
Apple reached the $2 trillion market-capitalization level on August 19, 2020, when its shares rose during the COVID-19-era technology-stock rally. The company had crossed $1 trillion two years earlier, making the move from one trillion to two trillion unusually rapid.
The calculation used Apple’s share price and its number of outstanding shares. Apple also carried out a four-for-one stock split in August 2020, but the split did not itself create value; it simply divided each share into four lower-priced shares.
Saudi Aramco had reached a valuation near $2 trillion at its 2019 listing, but Apple’s milestone is generally described as the first $2 trillion public-company market cap reached through exchange trading. Market values can later fall below or rise above such round-number thresholds.