Amazon could beat Apple to become the world’s first $1 trillion company, a new report suggests.
While Apple’s market cap currently stands at $893 billion to Amazon’s $752 billion, the online retail giant is rapidly closing the gap. By current trajectories, it will beat Apple to the $1 trillion mark by a mere week.
Apple’s stock price has risen a respectable 24 percent over the past year. That’s certainly good, but it’s nothing compared to Amazon, which has soared by 83 percent during the same period of time. Alphabet, the Google parent company with a market cap of $783 billion, has seen its stock rise by 33 percent. That’s faster than Apple, but way behind Amazon.
Based on current growth trajectories, Amazon will hit a $1 trillion market cap in late August, with Apple following one week later. Alphabet, meanwhile, will hang around as a “mere” billion-dollar company until 2019, when it would also join the $1 trillion club.
Amazon has had an impressive year so far. In February, it beat Microsoft to take the place of the no. 3 U.S. company by market capitalization. CEO Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest man, with a personal wealth estimated at $112 billion. Thanks to Amazon’s recent jump in share price, he just made the biggest single-year increase on the rich list this century, thanks to a net worth which has increased by $39.2 billion in just 12 months.
The race to $1 trillion
For a long time, Apple looked to be a shoe-in for the first company to hit the $1 trillion mark. It was the first company in history to reach the $700 billion, $800 billion, and $900 billion mark, and some analysts have still argued that it is undervalued.
If you’re interested in reading more about the race to hit the $1 trillion valuation, I’d heartily recommend reading NYU Stern marketing professor Scott Galloway’s highly readable [amazon_textlink asin=’0735213658′ text=’The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’cult087-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’308388df-2381-11e8-9036-2332722aeed7′], which takes an in-depth look at the different strategies employed by each company.
Source: Reuters
