Amazon was the second company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization in 2018, after Apple.
Amazon crossed the threshold on September 4, 2018, about one month after Apple became the first company to reach the same valuation. The milestone reflected investor confidence in Amazon’s rapidly expanding retail, cloud, advertising, and subscription businesses.
Amazon began as an online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It expanded into a broad online marketplace, logistics network, digital media company, and technology provider. Amazon Web Services, launched in 2006, became especially important because it supplied cloud infrastructure to businesses and developers worldwide.
The phrase “first reached” refers to an intraday market value based on the company’s share price. It does not mean Amazon was the second-largest company in every measure, such as revenue, assets, employees, or physical sales.