Apple became the first U.S. public company to reach a $1 trillion market value in August 2018. Its share price crossed the threshold on August 2, 2018, after years of growth in the iPhone, services, Mac, and wearables businesses.
The milestone used Apple’s total outstanding shares multiplied by the market price. It was a market-cap valuation, not cash held by the company and not annual revenue. Apple later passed additional trillion-dollar landmarks, including $2 trillion in 2020 and $3 trillion in 2022.
The achievement is sometimes confused with the first company anywhere to reach $1 trillion. PetroChina briefly reached that level during its 2007 Shanghai debut, while Apple is commonly identified as the first U.S. company to do so on a sustained, widely reported basis.