"Apple Inc. became the first $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company on Thursday, crowning a decade-long rise powered by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications. The tech company's stock jumped 2.9 per cent to end the day at $207.39 US, giving it a market capitalization of $1.002 trillion US. During the session, Apple's stock market value reached as much as $1.006 trillion US."
(www.cbc.ca/news/business/apple-trillion-stock-market-valuation-1.4771428)
------------------------------------------------------------
Update: After posting a strong earnings report for the second quarter of 2018, Apple is withing striking distance of the $1 Trillion figure.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/01/apple-1-trillion-share-price-threshold.html
------------------------------------------------------------
To be sure, a trillion dollars is a lot of money.
If you Google '1 trillion', the response is 'A trillion is 1,000,000,000,000, also know as 10 to the 12th power, or one million million. It's such a large number it's hard to get your head around it, so sometimes trillion just means “wow, a lot.”.'
One graphic has an interesting illustration of $1 trillion:
At present, there are four companies which are in striking distance of the $1 trillion valuation (as of July 26
, 2018). They are:
Apple - $945.7 Billion
Google - $876.9 Billion
Amazon - $861.1 Billion
Microsoft - $818.1 Billion
What's amazing is that the four companies were all started in a garage in only the last few decades. You can read more at my earlier blog 'From Humble Beginnings: Six Companies That Began In A Garage' which covers three of these companies.
If you go back five years to early 2013, the top four companies were Apple, Exxon Mobil, Berkshire Hathaway, PetroChina and Wal-Mart, with an average valuation of $315 Billion.
Going back to 2009 (after the market crash), the top 4 companies were Exxon Mobil, PetroChina, Wal-Mart and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China with an average valuation of $253 Billion.
With an average valuation of $872 Billion, the four current leaders may have an average themselves of $1 trillion if current trends continue. With the NASDAQ index at a value of almost 8,000 and rising, the outlook is very certain that the trend will continue according to the chart:
The question is, which company will reach the $1 Trillion value the first? Microsoft has been around many years and was previously known for Windows and DOS software but has made major recent strides with cloud computing. In 2018, Microsoft's revenue came in at more than $100 Billion for the first time.
“Our early investments in the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are paying off, and we will continue to expand our reach in large and growing markets with differentiated innovation,” said the chief executive officer Satya Nadella. Wal-Mart even just signed a cloud computing deal with Microsoft as they are both competing with Amazon. Microsoft Azure competes Amazon Web Services while Wal-Mart's retail sales have been affected by Amazon's e-commerce success.
Google has had an unprecedented surge after posting remarkable results for the 2nd Quarter of 2018 (see my article). Apple is within $50 Billion of the $1 Trillion mark as its products continue to sell very well at high margins (who needs the iPod anymore?).
Which company will be the first to reach one followed by twelve (12!) digits in dollar value. Apple looks poised and within reach but Google and Amazon are giving the company a run for its money!
My Twitter Page
