Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, became one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Bezos incorporated the business in Washington state in 1994, and Amazon began as an online bookseller. The company expanded rapidly into many categories, turning its website into a broad marketplace for goods sold by Amazon and by third-party merchants.
Amazon Web Services became another major engine of growth. Launched in the mid-2000s, AWS provides cloud computing, storage, databases, and related services to companies, governments, and developers. Its profits and scale helped investors value Amazon as more than a retailer.
Amazon’s market capitalization reflects expectations about future earnings and growth, not simply the amount of merchandise sold. It is often compared with Alibaba and Walmart, but those companies have different geographic footprints, structures, and business mixes.