Amazon joined Apple as the second U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization in 2018.
Amazon crossed the milestone on September 4, 2018, about one month after Apple became the first U.S. company to pass $1 trillion. Its share price rose to the level required for the company’s outstanding shares to be valued at approximately $1 trillion.
Amazon’s transformation explains the scale of the achievement. Founded as an online bookstore, it expanded into a broad marketplace, logistics network, digital-content provider, and cloud-computing company. Amazon Web Services became especially important because it supplied infrastructure and services to businesses around the world.
The milestone was based on market capitalization, not sales. Amazon’s rapid growth had often been accompanied by relatively low reported profits compared with its revenue, because the company reinvested heavily in fulfillment, technology, content, and new businesses. Investors valued its long-term expansion potential as well as its existing operations.