Amazon became the second U.S. business to surpass a $1 trillion market value in 2018.
Amazon crossed the milestone in September 2018, shortly after Apple had become the first U.S. company to reach it. The achievement showed how rapidly Amazon had expanded beyond online retail into logistics, digital media, devices, advertising, and cloud computing.
Amazon Web Services was particularly important to the company’s profitability and valuation. AWS provides computing, storage, databases, and other internet infrastructure to organizations worldwide. Amazon’s retail operations remain central, but the company is no longer simply an online bookstore.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, and the company began as an internet bookseller. It was originally called Cadabra, Inc., before adopting the Amazon name. Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and its shares trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol AMZN.