Apple Becomes First U.S. Company to Reach $2 Trillion Valuation
Apple briefly hits a $2 trillion market cap, doubling its valuation in just over two years despite the global pandemic.
Apple reaches a historic $2 trillion market cap on Wednesday, making it the first publicly traded U.S. company to achieve this milestone. The tech giant breaks this barrier when its stock price rises to $467.77, though shares later close slightly lower to end the day with a valuation near $1.98 trillion. This remarkable doubling in value occurs just over two years after Apple first crossed the $1 trillion mark in August 2018.
The company achieves this massive valuation while navigating the coronavirus pandemic, with shares up 60% year to date and over 120% over the past year. Apple credits its historically strong third-quarter performance, which includes $59.7 billion in revenue, to work-from-home trends and robust online sales that offset widespread retail closures.
While the $2 trillion mark remains largely symbolic, it highlights a major shift in how Wall Street views the iPhone maker under CEO Tim Cook. Investors increasingly treat Apple as a software company rather than a traditional hardware manufacturer, a transformation reflected in its rapidly expanding price-earnings ratio of over 33.