Apple briefly became the world’s first publicly traded company worth $2 trillion in August 2020.
The milestone reflected Apple’s rapid recovery from the market shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Investors valued the company’s iPhone business, services division, wearables, and enormous cash-generating ability. Apple reached the landmark roughly two years after becoming the first U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion valuation.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company’s share price by its shares outstanding. It can therefore change every trading day, unlike annual revenue or net income. Apple’s $2 trillion valuation was a stock-market measure, not the amount of money held in its bank accounts.
Saudi Aramco later became the first non-U.S. company to reach $2 trillion in market value, while Microsoft and Alphabet also joined the group. The milestone is commonly confused with Apple’s later $3 trillion valuation, reached in 2022.