Apple becomes world's first trillion dollar company

Customers walk past an Apple logo inside an Apple store at Grand Central Station in New York. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Apple became the world’s first trillion-dollar company on Thursday, as a rise in its share price pushed it past the landmark before its closest rival for the honour, retail giant Amazon.

The iMac to iPhone company, co-founded to sell personal computers by the late Steve Jobs in 1976, reached the historic milestone as its shares hit $207.05, the day after it posted strong financial results. Apple’s share price has grown 2,000% since Tim Cook replaced Jobs at chief executive in 2011.

The company hit a $1tn market capitalisation 42 years after it was founded and 117 years after US Steel became the first company to be valued at $1bn in 1901.

The rise in its share price came thanks to quarterly financial results released on Tuesday that proved better than Wall Street had expected.

The tech giant racked up profits of $11.5bn in three months on the back of record sales that hit $53.3bn, pushing shares of the iPhone giant higher and easing the value of the company up from $935bn towards the $1tn (£770bn) mark.

“Growth was strong all around the world,” Apple’s finance chief, Luca Maestri, said.

Source: The Guardian