Apple Becomes First US Company to Reach $1 Trillion

By Jack Phillips
August 2, 2018 Last Updated: August 2, 2018
Apple became the first $1 trillion U.S. firm Thursday. An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City on July 21, 2015. (Reuters/Mike Segar/File Photo)

Apple Inc became the first $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company on Thursday, crowning a decade-long rise fueled by its ubiquitous iPhone. The device transformed Apple from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications.

The tech company’s stock jumped 2.8 percent to as high as $207.05, bringing its gain to about 9 percent since Tuesday when it reported June-quarter results above expectations and said it bought back $20 billion of its own shares.

Apple’s stock market value is greater than the combined capitalization of Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, and AT&T. It now accounts for 4 percent of the S&P 500.

According to CNET, Apple hit the $1 trillion mark briefly before going down.

On Tuesday, the firm reported second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, and it sent shares surging by more than 5 percent on Wednesday, Business Insider reported. The Apple rally continued to surge on Thursday.

Jeff Carbone, co-founder of Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina, has included Apple in his clients’ portfolios for about a decade. Recently, some of his older clients have bought Apple shares for their grandchildren. “We still see upside from it, and as new money gets deposited we continue to buy, preferably on the dip,” Carbone said.

The $1 trillion figure made Apple worth more almost every country in the world except for the 15 richest countries ones, based on data from the CIA World Factbook. Apple is almost worth more than Mexico’s 2017 gross domestic product which was estimated at $1.142 trillion. Indonesia’s 2017 gross domestic product was $923 billion.

Meanwhile, Amazon had the second-largest U.S. market cap as of Wednesday, which was around $872.5 billion, according to Business Insider.

PetroChina, an oil and gas firm, hit $1 trillion for a short time on the Shanghai Stock Exchange back in 2007, CNET noted. It was the first to hit that figure.

Reuters contributed to this report.