Amazon first exceeded a $1 trillion market capitalization in September 2018.
Amazon crossed the threshold on September 4, 2018, becoming the second U.S. company to reach that level after Apple. Its valuation reflected the rapid expansion of online retail, Amazon Web Services, advertising, subscriptions, and logistics operations.
The company began as an online bookstore in 1994 and steadily broadened its business. Amazon Web Services, launched in 2006, became especially important because cloud computing created a large, high-margin business alongside retail.
A common mistake is to treat Amazon’s $1 trillion milestone as the first ever. Apple reached $1 trillion about a month earlier. Another distinction is that Amazon’s market capitalization depended on its share price and share count, not on the combined value of its warehouses, websites, and physical assets.