Amazon became the second company to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization, after Apple, in 2018.
Amazon crossed the threshold on September 4, 2018, about a month after Apple reached it. The achievement followed years of expansion from online bookselling into a broad business spanning retail, logistics, cloud computing, digital media, advertising, and devices.
Amazon Web Services was especially important to investor expectations because cloud computing became a major source of revenue and operating profit. The company’s enormous retail sales alone do not determine its market capitalization; investors also price anticipated future growth and profitability.
Microsoft later became the third U.S. company to pass $1 trillion, and Alphabet joined the group in 2020. Because share prices move constantly, Amazon’s position in rankings has changed repeatedly, even while its underlying businesses continued to expand.