Apple has become the first publicly-traded company to have a market value of $3 trillion or more at the close of Wall Street’s trading day.
The iPhone and Mac computer company had been valued at $2.98 trillion when the market closed on Thursday, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Apple’s stock price rose 2.21% on Friday to $193.78, driving the tech giant’s market cap to $3.05 billion.
The “historic” achievement marks “another milestone for a technology juggernaut that has reshaped society with a line-up of products that churn out eye-popping profits,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, in a note to investors Friday.
Apple, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, passed the $3 trillion market cap milestone in January 2022, but the stock price subsequently fell 25% over the rest of the year to $130 before beginning the current climb.
While the $3 trillion market value achievement is largely symbolic, its magnitude is still breathtaking, The Associated Press noted, calculating that $3 trillion could buy nearly 9 million homes in the U.S., based on the average sales price during the past year as calculated by Zillow.
Overall, the stock market had a good day with the Nasdaq composite index, which includes Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and more than 3,000 other companies, up 1.45% and closing the first six months of 2023 up more than 31%, for its best first half since 1983, according to CNBC.
Apple, which along with Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia is in the S&P 500, have helped it rise 16% – its best first half since 2019, CNBC reported. The Dow has risen 3.8% for the year and was on track for its best month since November and its third winning quarter.
Tech’s trillion-dollar club – Amazon, Microsoft and more – over the years
Back in September 2018, Amazon surpassed $1 trillion in market value to join Apple, which had passed that mark the month before.
By 2020, Alphabet and Microsoft had joined those companies in the $1 trillion club. But many tech companies – Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft among them – lost billions during 2022.
Apple overcame supply chain issues and a tough economy to return to the $3 trillion market cap mark, Ives said. And the company could become even more valuable with its promised Vision Pro VR headset next year – and demand for new iPhones, some of which could be more durable with rumored titanium frames coming to some models.
Factor in apps for the VR headset and Apple’s growing services revenue, in general, and Apple’s “fair valuation could be in the $3.5 trillion range with a bull case $4 trillion valuation by FY25,” Ives said.
What are the most valuable public companies after Apple?
These are the world’s ten largest companies based on market cap, according to CompaniesMarketCap.com:
- Apple – $3.05 trillion
- Microsoft – $2.53 trillion
- Saudi Aramco – $2.08 trillion
- NVIDIA – $1.94 trillion
- Alphabet – $1.53 trillion
- Amazon – $1.34 trillion
- Tesla – $830 billion
- Berkshire Hathaway – $745 billion
- Meta Platforms (Facebook) – $735 billion
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. – $523 billion
Contributing: The Associated Press
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
