Apple became the first publicly traded company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization in 2018.
Apple crossed the threshold in August 2018 as its share price rose after years of expansion in the iPhone business and growing revenue from services. The company’s enormous scale meant that even relatively small percentage changes in its share price could add or remove tens of billions of dollars from its market value.
The record is distinct from being the first company ever valued at $1 trillion in every possible sense. It refers to a publicly traded company’s equity value on the stock market, calculated from shares outstanding multiplied by the share price.
Apple later became the first company to reach $2 trillion in 2020 and $3 trillion in 2022. Other major technology companies subsequently joined the trillion-dollar group.