Amazon was the second publicly traded business to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization, doing so in September 2018.
The company crossed the threshold about one month after Apple. Its market value had expanded dramatically as investors viewed Amazon not only as an online retailer but also as a major cloud-computing provider through Amazon Web Services.
Amazon began as an online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It later expanded into general retail, logistics, digital entertainment, smart devices, advertising, and cloud infrastructure. AWS became especially important because cloud services generally carry different economics from traditional retail.
A company’s market capitalization is calculated by multiplying its share price by its shares outstanding. It can therefore pass a round-number milestone even when its revenue, profits, and physical assets have not changed on that exact day.