Amazon reached a $1 trillion market capitalization in September 2018, shortly after Apple.
Amazon crossed the milestone on September 4, 2018, during trading on the Nasdaq. Apple had reached the same valuation about a month earlier. Amazon’s share price had risen dramatically as investors rewarded the company’s expansion from online bookselling into a broad commerce, logistics, cloud-computing, and media business.
Amazon Web Services was especially important to the company’s financial story. Its cloud infrastructure operation became a major source of operating income and helped distinguish Amazon from traditional retailers. The company also benefited from the scale of its marketplace and fulfillment network.
The milestone concerned Amazon’s market capitalization, not the value of goods sold through its website. Confusing marketplace sales with company revenue is a common error because many independent sellers use Amazon’s platform.