Amazon became the second publicly traded U.S. company to exceed a $1 trillion market capitalization, after Apple, in September 2018.
Amazon crossed the threshold on September 4, 2018, when its share price reached the level needed to value the company at approximately $1 trillion. Its shares had risen dramatically over the preceding years as investors rewarded growth in online retail, cloud computing, digital advertising, and subscription services.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and began as an online bookstore. It expanded into a broad marketplace, while Amazon Web Services became a major provider of cloud infrastructure for businesses and governments.
The milestone is about equity value rather than sales or cash reserves. Amazon’s market capitalization reflected expectations about future profits and growth, particularly from AWS. The company’s stock later underwent a 20-for-1 split in 2022, which changed the per-share price but not the company’s overall market value at the time of the split.