Apple became the world's first company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization in August 2018.
The milestone reflected the enormous value investors placed on Apple's iPhone business, services ecosystem, and global brand. Apple briefly reached the threshold during trading on August 2, 2018, when its share price rose enough to push its outstanding shares above the trillion-dollar mark.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company's share price by its total number of outstanding shares. It is not the same as revenue, profit, cash holdings, or the book value of physical assets. Because share prices change constantly, the exact ranking of the world's most valuable companies can change from day to day.
Apple later became the first company to surpass a $2 trillion market capitalization in 2020 and a $3 trillion valuation in 2022. These milestones are based on public-market share prices rather than a formal cash payment or a single company sale.