Amazon became the first US-listed internet company after Alphabet to reach a US$2 trillion market capitalization in 2024.
Amazon’s valuation reflected the combined strength of online retail, advertising, subscriptions, logistics, and Amazon Web Services. AWS is a major cloud-computing business, while the company’s retail operations generate enormous sales volumes but generally operate with different margins from cloud services.
Market capitalization does not measure a company’s annual sales directly. Amazon has often ranked among the world’s largest companies by revenue, while its market value reflects investors’ expectations about future cash flow and growth. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online bookstore and later expanded into a broad technology and commerce company.