Amazon.com has became the second US company to reach a $1 trillion in stock market value, just weeks after Apple hit the same milestone last month.
Shares in the world’s largest online retailer last traded up 1.4 percent at $2,041.68. Its shares hit the $2050.2677 level to give its stock a value of $1 trillion
Amazon crossed the $2,000 threshold for the first time on Aug. 30 after doubling its price in just 10 months. Amazon shares first hit $1,000 on Oct. 27, 2017. It first reached $100 on Oct. 23, 2009.
Amazon captures 49 cents of every e-commerce dollar in the United States. It employs more than 550,000 people and generates $178 billion in annual revenue. It sells everything from computing space to peanut butter to appointments with plumbers.
But while the explanation for Apple’s valuation is simple – it makes devices that a lot of people are willing to spend a lot of money on – that for Amazon is more complicated, according to The New York Times.
“The thing it has always sold the most — to investors, customers, the media — is excitement,” according to David Streitfeld.
“In the beginning, Amazon was an exciting new way to shop for books: online. Then it was an exciting new way to read (Kindle e-books), an exciting new way to publish (CreateSpace), an exciting new way to power the internet (Amazon Web Services), an exciting new way to get deliveries (Amazon Prime), an exciting new way to make your house a high-tech outpost (Alexa),” he writes.