Amazon reached a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time in September 2018.
The milestone came after Amazon’s share price rose strongly during 2018, reflecting rapid growth in online retail, cloud computing, advertising, and subscription services. Apple had reached the same valuation several weeks earlier, making Amazon the second U.S. company to cross the threshold.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company’s share price by its total number of outstanding shares. It changes whenever the share price changes, so crossing $1 trillion is a market-value event rather than a cash payment or accounting revaluation.
Amazon is often confused with Alphabet in discussions of the first technology companies to reach this level. Alphabet crossed $1 trillion later, in 2020, while Microsoft did so in 2019.