Amazon became the second company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Amazon crossed the $1 trillion threshold on September 4, 2018, following Apple’s earlier milestone. Its valuation reflected the rapid expansion of online retail, Amazon Web Services, digital advertising, subscriptions, and logistics.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore. The company expanded into a broad marketplace where third-party sellers list products alongside Amazon’s own retail operations. That marketplace model helped turn the business into a global commerce and technology platform.
Amazon’s market capitalization is not the same as the total value of goods sold through its marketplace. Gross merchandise volume, revenue, operating income, and equity value are different measurements, a distinction that often causes confusion in company comparisons.