Apple First To Breach $3 Trillion Market Cap

Apple has shrugged off Wall Street concerns over slowing iPhone demand, after its shares briefly rose on Monday to give the firm a market valuation of $3 trillion dollars.

On the first day of trading in 2022, Apple’s shares hit a record high of $182.88, putting it’s market value just above $3 trillion.

But it didn’t last and Apple shares ended Monday trading up 2.5 percent at $182.01, meaning its market capitalisation was a mere $2.99 trillion instead.

Market capitalisations

Apple has become the first ever company to hit $3 trillion market value, and it is a notable landmark, similar to when it was valued at $1 trillion, and then $2 trillion.

Apple had become the first publicly listed US company worth $1 trillion (£770bn) back in August 2018.

Then in August 2020, as the Coronavirus pandemic was engulfing the world, Apple breached the $2 trillion valuation.

Now in January 2022 it has surpassed (briefly) the $3 trillion mark.

Apple is not alone as being a tech company in the exclusive trillion dollar valuation club.

Rivals including Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet (Google’s parent) have also breached the $1 trillion valuation a couple of years ago.

Amazon is currently worth $1.72 trillion, and Alphabet is worth $1.92 trillion.

The only firm coming close to Apple is Microsoft, which is currently valued at $2.51 trillion.

Other trillion dollar contenders are Tesla valued at $1.20 trillion, and Saudi Aramco valued at about $1.9 trillion.

Facebook parent company Meta breached the $1 trillion milestone in June but is currently valued below the trillion mark.

How was it done?

There is no doubt the $3 trillion market valuation represents an impressive milestone for Apple, which introduced the iPhone to the world back in 2007.

The iPhone became the first smartphone to truly catch on with the general public, and it remains Apple’s biggest earner. It has helped Apple’s revenue surpass the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand, Peru, and other countries.

When Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011 after Steve Jobs died, he focused on improving and optimising Apple’s supply chain, whilst broadening Apple’s services to include video streaming, fitness, and music, along with a few new devices such as the Apple Watch and HomePod.

All of this, coupled with the reliable cash cow of iPhone sales, helped Apple deliver consistently strong financials over the years.

And under Tim Cook, Apple’s dependence on iPhone sales has been lessened, and now accounts for 52 percent of total revenue in fiscal 2021, compared with over 60 percent in 2018.

However there still remains some investor concern that Apple has lost its creative spark with the death of Steve Jobs and the departure of chief designer Sir Jonny Ive.

It remains to be seen how Apple can continue to extract cash out of its existing user base, whilst still continuing to expand its market share.