Apple was the first publicly traded company to reach a $2 trillion market capitalization, doing so in August 2020.
Apple’s valuation doubled from the $1 trillion milestone reached in 2018. The increase was supported by the iPhone ecosystem, growing services revenue, wearables, and investor expectations for continued earnings and cash generation.
The milestone occurred during a period of major market volatility. Market capitalization measures the value investors assign to a company’s equity at a particular share price; it does not mean that the company holds $2 trillion in cash.
Saudi Aramco also briefly became the first company to exceed $2 trillion during its 2019 market debut, according to intraday trading, but Apple is widely identified as the first company to sustain the milestone among major publicly traded global firms in the later technology-market race. Market-cap rankings can therefore depend on the date and measurement used.