Apple becomes the most valuable & the first $2 trillion U.S company
The smartphone giant has grown organically over the years to become an indispensable tech force
Back in December 2019, World’s most profitable and the third-largest company by revenue overall — Saudi Oil giant Aramco launched its IPO, reaching a valuation of $1.88 trillion immediately. However, shares of state-owned Aramco (ARMCO) surged to 38.7 riyals ($10.32) on the very next day of public trading on Dec. 12, 2019, pushing the company to the long-sought $2 trillion valuation.
In the process, it also became the first every global company to reach that milestone. The big techs of the U.S— namely Apple, Microsoft, Google & Amazon have been the exclusive members of the Trillion Dollar Club since the beginning of the year. Apple has been the star of the lot and its valuation stood at $1.4 trillion, the last time I wrote about their market caps, back in January.
Apple, which was the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach the $1 trillion market cap on Aug. 2, 2018, has now also become first to surpass $2 trillion — based on a share count of more than 4.275 billion, the company broke the barrier just before 11 a.m. ET on Aug. 19, 2020, when its price rose to $467.77. Propelled by the onset of the pandemic and the need for digital products & services globally, the smartphone giant doubled its valuation in just over two years.
Also worth remembering is the fact that Apple overtook Aramco on July 31 to become the World’s most valuable publicly-traded company — Aramco has seen its value decline due to the Oil slump. Unlike Saudi Aramco, which was valued at $2 trillion from the get-go, Apple grew organically. Visionary leadership from Steve Jobs, followed by Tim Cook’s robust performance as CEO and a pivot towards services & wearable products has brought this distinction for the company after 42 years of its inception.
Despite taking a major hit to the hardware sales due to store closures in the U.S & elsewhere caused by the pandemic, Apple posted a strong quarterly performance — including $59.7 billion in revenue and double-digit growth in its products and services. Work-from-home trends and strong online sales have boosted overall operations. For that matter, all the other mega-cap tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon & Google have benefited greatly from pandemic as economies of developed countries depend on them.
Apple has continued its strong push to the services side — it joined Netflix in the global streaming wars launching AppleTV+. Last year, the company launched the Apple Card and its contactless payment system. More recently, it acquired a startup that would enable its iPhones to act as payment terminals. This is on top of its subscription music offering, Apple Music. Altogether, an estimated 550 million consumers now pay regularly for an Apple service.
The company has faced some headwinds with recent privacy concerns, to accusations of anti-competitive behavior at a heated congressional hearing, to Fortnite-maker Epic Games launching legal action against Apple and Google after the enormously popular video game was removed from their app stores for violating Apple’s strict payment guidelines. Meanwhile, the Apple juggernaut continues to roll on.
To wrap up things, here is a look back at the first U.S. companies on when they reached different valuation milestones (chart above). Most of these firms benefited from or were leaders in the biggest technological advancements of their time.
🔷 $1 billion: U.S. Steel in 1901
🔷 $10 billion: General Motors in 1955
🔷 $100 billion: General Electric in 1995 (IBM reportedly in intraday in 1987)
🔷 $500 billion: Microsoft in 1999
🔷 $1 trillion: Apple in 2018
