Apple became the world’s first trillion-dollar company, as a rise in its share price pushed it past the landmark before its closest rival for the honor, retail giant Amazon.
The iMac to iPhone company, co-founded to sell personal computers by the late Steve Jobs in 1976, reached the historic milestone as its shares hit $201.05, the day after it posted strong financial results. Apple’s share price has grown 2,000% since Tim Cook replaced Jobs as chief executive in 2011.
The company hit a $1tn market capitalization 42 years after it was founded and 117 years after US Steel became the first company to be valued at $1bn in 1901.
The rise in its share price came thanks to quarterly financial results released on Tuesday that proved better than Wall Street had expected.
The tech giant racked up profits of $11.5bn in three months on the back of records sales that hit $53.3bn, pushing shares of the iPhone gianthigher and easing the value of the company up from $935bn towards the $1tn mark.
Apple’s performance has left rivals in the competitive technology sector trailing in its wake.
Apple began selling desktop computers in 1976 but its fortunes were turbocharged from the turn of the 21st century by the launch of personal gadgets such as the iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007.
Since then 18 different iPhones have been launched and more than 1.2bn the devices have been sold.
Source: The Guardian
