san francisco — Apple became the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a market value of $3 trillion, another milestone for a technology giant that has churned out eye-catching profit-churning products. Has reshaped the society with a series of
Apple shares closed up 2.3% on Friday at $193.97, giving it a market value of $3.04 trillion. Apple is one of a few technology companies, including Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia, that helped drive the SThe &P 500 gained nearly 16% in the first half of the year.
The 47-year-old company, co-founded by Silicon Valley veteran Steve Jobs, briefly surpassed a market value of $3 trillion on back-to-back days in January 2022, but could not maintain that until the market close. could. Instead, Apple’s stock plunged into a prolonged slump that pushed its market value below $2 trillion earlier this year amid investor jitters about slowing growth and rising interest rates, which have pushed the entire tech industry down. affected the area.
Apple didn’t come close to the $3 trillion threshold again until earlier this month when the company unveiled what could be its next big product — a high-priced headset called Vision Pro that nudges users into artificial settings Which is known as virtual reality.
Although the significance of reaching a market cap of $3 trillion is largely symbolic, the magnitude of it is breathtaking.
For example, consider that according to calculations by Zillow, roughly 9 million homes can be bought in the US for $3 trillion, based on the average sale price during the past year. It could also buy the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world, with plenty of spare change. If $3 trillion were distributed equally to each person in the United States, each person would receive approximately $9,000.
Microsoft is the second most valuable public company at $2.5 trillion. Oil giant Saudi Aramco has a market value of $2.08 trillion. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Amazon and Nvidia, has a market value of over $1 trillion.
After topping $2 trillion for the first time in August 2021, it took less than two years for Apple to approach a market value of $3 trillion, which is the first time the Cupertino, California company has reached $1 trillion. About two years later it happened.
The technology empire that Apple has built since Jobs returned to the company in 1997 after being ousted by then-CEO John Sculley in 1985 has led to enormous growth in the trillions. At the time of Jobs’ return, Apple was struggling with bankruptcy. So desperate for help that it turned to its one-time arch-rival Microsoft for cash.
Today, Apple makes enough money that it can pay out $105 billion annually in dividends and repurchases of its own stock to investors — and it still has about $56 billion in cash left over at the end of its last fiscal quarter.
The iPhone, unveiled by Jobs in 2007 with his hallmark showmanship, remains the crown jewel of Apple’s empire. Last year, the device accounted for more than half of the company’s nearly $400 billion in sales.
The rest of Apple’s revenue comes from other products such as Macintosh computers, iPads, Apple Watch, AirPods, and a services division that includes music and video streaming, warranty programs, fees collected through the iPhone App Store, and advertising paid for by Google. Commissions included. Be the default search engine on iPhone.
Although most of Apple’s innovation occurred while Jobs ran the company, most of its wealth has been built under the reign of its current CEO, Tim Cook, who took over as CEO shortly before Jobs’ death in October 2011. . According to Cook, Apple had a market value of $350 billion when Jobs took over.
