Apple was the first company listed on a U.S. exchange to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization, in August 2018.
Apple crossed the threshold on August 2, 2018, when its shares traded above the price needed to value the company at $1 trillion. The company was listed on the Nasdaq after its initial public offering in December 1980.
Apple’s market-cap growth followed major changes in its business. The Macintosh established the company in personal computing, the iPod expanded its consumer-electronics reach, and the iPhone transformed its scale after launching in 2007.
The wording matters because PetroChina had briefly reached a comparable valuation on the Shanghai exchange in 2007. Apple’s achievement is the landmark usually meant when financial histories describe the first U.S.-listed trillion-dollar company.