Amazon was the first company centered on online retail to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization.
Amazon crossed the $1 trillion mark on September 4, 2018, about a month after Apple reached the same valuation. Its rise reflected the expansion of an online bookstore into a broad marketplace, logistics network, cloud-computing provider, advertising business, and digital-media company.
Amazon’s Amazon Web Services division became especially important to its financial profile. Although Amazon is widely identified with e-commerce, its business mix extends far beyond retail, which is why describing it only as an online store misses a major part of its valuation story.
The milestone did not mean every Amazon operation was equally profitable. Investors value expected future cash flows, growth, and competitive advantages, not just current sales. Amazon’s share price has also undergone stock splits, so historical prices must be adjusted when comparing different periods.