Amazon became the second U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market value, after Apple, in August 2018.
Amazon passed the milestone on September 4, 2018, when its shares rose above the level required to value the company at $1 trillion. Apple had crossed the same threshold about one month earlier. Amazon’s achievement was notable because the company had spent years prioritizing expansion and investment over consistently high reported profits.
Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon developed into a broad commerce, logistics, cloud-computing, advertising, and entertainment company. Amazon Web Services became an especially important source of operating income.
The phrase “second U.S. company” refers to publicly traded market capitalization, not the second-largest company in every measure. Valuations change with share prices, so a company’s ranking can move even when its underlying business has not changed dramatically.