- Apple became the first US company worth $1 trillion on Thursday.
- Within the last decade, it overtook corporate giants like Exxon Mobil and General Electric.
- Watch Apple’s stock trade in realtime here.
Apple’s market cap briefly topped $1 trillion on Thursday, the first time a US company has ever achieved that feat.
It’s been a long slog to the top since the iPhone maker went public at $22 a share on December 12, 1980.
The chart below, which came to our attention via Pension Partners’ Charlie Bilello, shows that the company had to outmaneuver corporate giants like General Electric and Microsoft, which once held the title for most valuable company in the world.
The pace of growth in Apple’s market cap really picked up steam in the late-2000s, which coincided with the launch of the first-generation iPhone.
Apple’s rise to a $1 trillion market cap is also symbolic of the evolution of what kinds of companies are most valued by investors, and society at large. Five of the 10 largest US companies by market cap on Thursday were tech companies, including Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook. In 2011, Apple was the only tech company in the top five.
Investors gave Apple the lift over $1 trillion after its second-quarter earnings on Tuesday beat Wall Street’s expectations, sending the stock up to the magic price of $207.05.
See also:
- MORGAN STANLEY: Here are the 7 tech companies most likely to get acquired in the next 12 months
- Bank of America says global markets are echoing the 1998 financial crisis, and there’s evidence for another crash
- MORGAN STANLEY: The stock market is heading for its biggest sell-off of the year – here’s how to protect yourself
The post Apple is officially the first $1 trillion US company — here’s the competition it knocked out to clinch that milestone appeared first on Business Insider.