Amazon was the second U.S. company to exceed a $1 trillion market capitalization, after Apple.
Amazon crossed the $1 trillion threshold on September 4, 2018, about one month after Apple reached the same milestone. The achievement followed a long period of rapid growth in online retail, cloud computing, digital advertising, and subscription services.
The event illustrates how market capitalization is determined by public share prices rather than by a company’s physical assets alone. Amazon’s valuation rose as investors anticipated continued expansion, even though the company had historically reinvested heavily in warehouses, technology, delivery infrastructure, and new businesses.
Amazon’s original retail identity can obscure the importance of AWS, which supplies computing, storage, databases, and other services to organizations worldwide. Market-cap rankings combine the value investors assign to all of these businesses.