Apple Inc on Thursday became the first $1 trillion publicly listed US company, fueled by iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global entertainment and communications company.
Other companies that are nearing the trillion dollar valuation include Google’s parent company Alphabet (currently: $845 bn), Amazon ($870 bn), and Microsoft ($815 bn).
Apple, the first company with twelve zeroes associated with their name, has rallied about 9 percent since Tuesday, when it reported June-quarter results above expectations. Just over two decades back in 1997 Apple teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, with its stock trading for less than $1.
Started in the garage of co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976, Apple has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand and other countries. Along the way, it has changed how consumers connect with one another and how businesses conduct daily commerce.
The stock has surged more than 50,000% since its 1980 initial public offering, while the S&P 500 rose approximately 2,000% increase during the same almost four decades.
One of three founders, Jobs was driven out of Apple in the mid-1980s, only to return a decade later and rescue the computer company from near bankruptcy.
He launched the iPhone in 2007, dropping ‘Computer’ from Apple’s name. That put Apple on a path to overtake Exxon Mobil in 2011 as the largest US company by market value.
Here are others who have achieved financial milestones in the past.
One billion:
US Steel Corporation was the first company to reach a market valuation of $1 billion in 1901.
Ten billion: It took over a half century before a company managed to reach the $10 billion valuation mark, but General Motors hit that milestone in 1955.
One-hundred billion: Twenty-two years later, IBM became the first $100 billion company in 1987. In Indis, TCS became the first company to become a $100 billion company, earlier this year
Five-hundred billion: Microsoft first made it to the half trillion mark in 1999, riding on the sale of personal computers.
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