Amazon was founded in 1994 as an online bookstore and later became one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization.
Jeff Bezos established the company in Bellevue, Washington, in July 1994, originally under the name Cadabra. It began operating as an online bookstore in 1995 and soon expanded into music, electronics, household goods, and almost every major retail category.
Amazon’s later growth came from more than online shopping. Amazon Web Services became a major cloud-computing provider, while advertising, subscriptions, logistics, devices, and streaming added further businesses. These divisions helped investors view Amazon as a diversified technology and infrastructure company rather than only a retailer.
Market capitalization reflects expectations about future earnings, not simply current sales. Amazon’s valuation therefore rose as investors assigned value to its scale, logistics network, cloud platform, and long-term growth potential.