Amazon became the second U.S. company to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Amazon crossed the threshold in September 2018, shortly after Apple reached the same landmark. The achievement reflected the company’s expansion from an online bookstore into a broad technology and commerce group serving customers, sellers, advertisers, and cloud-computing users.
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, was especially important to investor assessments of the company. Launched in 2006, AWS provides computing, storage, database, and other internet services to businesses and governments. Its growth gave Amazon a major technology business alongside retail operations.
Amazon’s valuation has always been sensitive to expectations about future growth, so its market capitalization has moved substantially over time. The company’s businesses include e-commerce, cloud computing, digital advertising, streaming, devices, and logistics.