Historic milestone as Apple value touches $2 trillion

It took US technology giant Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in value on the stock market, but just two more to get to the $2 trillion marks which it touched Wednesday when shares climbed 1.2 percent to $467.78 in morning trading.

Apple thus becomes the first US company to reach a $2 trillion valuation, capping a staggering ascent that began during the pandemic and cementing its place as the world’s most valuable public company.

The next most valuable US company is Amazon which is worth around $1.7tn and Microsoft close behind at over $1.6tn. They are followed by Google-owner Alphabet at just over $1tn.

In fact, the pandemic has been a bonanza for tech giants. Stocks of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet have soared since the Federal Reserve announced measures to calm investors in March.

The only other company to reach the $2tn mark was state-backed Saudi Aramco after it listed its shares last December

But the value of Saudi Aramco’s has slipped back to $1.8tn and Apple surpassed it to become the world’s most valuable traded company at the end of July.

The iPhone-maker’s shares have leap-frogged more than 50% this year, despite the coronavirus crisis forcing it to shut retail stores and political pressure over its links to China.

Apple posted strong third quarter figures towards the end of July, including $59.7bn of revenue and double-digit growth in its products and services segments.

Meanwhile, in other tech development, US President Donald Trump has said that he would support Oracle buying TikTok, the Chinese-owned viral video app that his administration says must be sold in the coming months to protect American users’ data.