Amazon first surpassed a $1 trillion market capitalization in September 2018. Its share price rose above the level required to value the company at more than $1 trillion, roughly one month after Apple reached that milestone.
Amazon began as an online bookseller founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and expanded into a broad marketplace selling products worldwide. Its cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services, became another major source of growth and profit, while logistics, advertising, streaming, and devices broadened the business.
The milestone showed that investors valued Amazon as more than a traditional retailer. Its marketplace connected millions of buyers and sellers, and its infrastructure supported both e-commerce and cloud customers.
Amazon’s market capitalization has fluctuated substantially because its share price changes daily. A company’s market cap also differs from revenue: Amazon can produce enormous sales while its valuation reflects expectations about future earnings, growth, and competitive position.