Amazon became the second U.S. company to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization in September 2018.
Amazon crossed the threshold on September 4, 2018, roughly one month after Apple became the first U.S. company to reach the same valuation. The milestone followed a sharp rise in Amazon’s share price and reflected investor expectations for continued growth across several businesses.
Although Amazon began as an online bookseller, its market value increasingly reflected a much broader company. Amazon Web Services became a major cloud-computing business, while advertising, logistics, subscriptions, and marketplace sales expanded the company’s economic reach.
Amazon’s $1 trillion figure was a market-capitalization milestone, not a statement that the company had earned $1 trillion in sales or profit. Market cap can rise or fall daily because it depends on the share price and the number of shares outstanding.