It’s hard to truly understand Apple’s astronomical size until you put things into context. With $178 billion in cash as of last quarter, you can start easily comparing the company to the gross domestic product (GDP) of large countries.
In fact, Apple would be the world’s 55th richest country right now, according to the latest data from World Bank.
New Zealand barely keeps the 54th spot with $185,788 billion. And Apple would just barely dethrone Ukraine’s 55th spot at $177,431 billion GDP.
Apple has more in its war chest than the total value of goods and services produced by 141 countries in a given year. What Apple will do with all that money remains unclear, but Tim Cook (who does not believe in the law of large numbers) has made it clear that it’s not being hoarded. The $3 billion acquisition of Beats just last year was the largest buy in Apple’s history.
After making more money than any company in history last quarter, some analysts think Apple is on its way to becoming the first trillion dollar company in terms of market cap (currently at $711 billion).
Apple has yet to topple Microsoft’s record valuation in 1999 at $640 billion ($870 billion with inflation), but it’s well on its way. Microsoft is less than half of Apple’s size now as the second-largest U.S. company with $347.5 billion.
A company Apple is nowhere near touching? As The Atlantic notes, The Dutch East India Company was worth around $7 trillion during its height in the 1700s.
Guess we all need something to aspire to.
Source: World Bank
Via: The Atlantic
