Amazon first reached a $1 trillion market capitalization in September 2018.
Amazon crossed the milestone on September 4, 2018, about a month after Apple achieved the same landmark. The company began as an online bookstore in 1994 and expanded into general merchandise, logistics, cloud computing, digital media, and advertising.
Amazon Web Services became especially important to the company’s business model because it supplied cloud infrastructure to organizations worldwide. The company’s market value therefore reflected more than retail sales alone; investors also considered its cloud, subscription, advertising, and logistics operations.
Amazon’s achievement is sometimes confused with the first $1 trillion company overall, a distinction that belongs to Apple. Alibaba is another major e-commerce company, but it did not establish this specific U.S.-market milestone. Market capitalization also differs from annual retail revenue or total transaction volume.