Amazon became the first online retailer to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization in 2018.
Amazon crossed the threshold during trading on September 4, 2018. The company had grown from an online bookstore into a broad platform spanning retail, logistics, digital content, devices, advertising, and cloud computing. Its Amazon Web Services division became especially important because cloud services generated substantial revenue and operating profit.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and began as an internet bookseller. Its long investment period often produced modest or negative retail profits compared with traditional retailers, but investors valued its expanding scale and future growth. That history makes Amazon a useful example of why market capitalization reflects expected future earnings as well as current results.
The $1 trillion figure refers to equity value, not the value of goods sold through Amazon’s marketplace. Many independent merchants sell through the platform, so Amazon’s market cap should not be confused with the total value of all merchandise traded on its site.