A trillion dollars is unfathomable to many, but not for five global corporations in the trillion-dollar companies club. In June this year, the trillion-dollar market cap club expanded after Facebook joined. Prior to that incredible achievement, Apple and Amazon both broke the trillion-dollar barrier in 2018.
Microsoft was briefly named the world’s most valuable tech company when it entered the exclusive 13-digit club in 2019. Alphabet, Google’s parent firm, joined in January 2020. Not forgetting to mention Saudi Aramco, which became a member in December 2019.
Apple: 2.78 Trillion Dollars Market Cap
Apple (AAPL) was founded in 1976. Few people were startled when Apple became the first corporation to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization. The 42-year road to joining the exclusive club began seven years after Tim Cook took over as CEO of Steve Jobs. Apple didn’t stay above $1 trillion for long, and by the end of the year, because of a stock market downturn in the United States, it had slipped below $800 billion. However, the stock rose in 2019, and the market capitalization reached $1.3 trillion in December.
Despite the numerous obstacles, including a near-bankruptcy in 1997, the IT giants established a route in combining new technologies with innovative business strategies. As a result, the company has remained a major participant in the technology industry, from developing iTunes and the App Store, which boosted revenue by encouraging users to consume microcontent and getting people to regularly upgrade increasingly expensive gadgets.
Amazon: 1.69 Trillion Dollar Market Cap
Amazon was founded in 1994. It is a US-based company. In September 2018, Amazon, the ever-diversifying company, hit the trillion-dollar milestone for the first time. Amazon reached the golden level five weeks after Apple.
After some time, it slipped to below $1 trillion, and the eCommerce giant took longer to recover. Amazon rejoined the club in January 2020 after exceeding analyst expectations with its earnings and revealing that its Prime membership service had 150 million users. These results lifted Amazon’s worth back above $1 trillion, cementing Jeff Bezos’ status as the world’s richest person.
Amazon has a net worth of $1.64T. It is the world’s most profitable internet corporation. It is the United State’s second-largest private employer and had the largest global brand valuation as of 2020.
Microsoft: 2.4 Trillion Dollars Market Cap
Microsoft (MSFT) was founded in 1975. It is a firm that is based in the United States. In 2019, Microsoft surpassed $1 trillion and joined the elite trillion-dollar club. In addition, it was the most valuable firm in 2019 after it overtook Apple and held this position for the majority of the year.
Microsoft has been in and out of the trillion-dollar corporation category several times. The business’s shares reached the highest level since 1991 in 2019, thanks to CEO Satya Nadella’s decision to focus on cloud computing.
Microsoft has a net worth of 2.20T. Microsoft has gained 19% this year, outpacing Apple and Amazon, as investors rushed into the company on the possibilities of long-term earnings and revenue growth, as well as expansion in areas such as machine learning and cloud computing. The company’s third-quarter results showed excellent growth in all of its business sectors.
Saudi Aramco: 7.09 Trillion Dollar Market Cap
Saudi Aramco was founded in 1933. The state-owned oil and gas firm is the only elite trillion-dollar club member not based in the United States. It is based in Taiwan. Saudi Aramco company’s shares began trading on the Tadawul stock exchange in December 2019. In an initial public offering (IPO) that analysts and journalists much anticipated, the world’s most profitable firm surpassed the trillion-dollar threshold on its first day of trade. The company was valued at $1.88 trillion on the first day of trade, and on the second day, it set another record after the market’s valuation was more than $2 trillion.
Saudi Aramco is valued at 1.88T. However, Jackie Forrest, director of Arc Energy Research, revealed in March 2021 that earnings in 2020 were roughly 45 percent lower than in 2019 due to global lockdowns following the COVID-19 epidemic, which reduced oil demand.
Alphabet (Google): 1.89 Trillion Dollar Market Cap
Google was established in 1998. The internet firm took its name from the mathematical phrase “googol,” which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. When it reorganized in 2015 under the parent company Alphabet, it stated that it would buy back shares worth $5,099,019,513.59.
In August 2018, Apple became the first $1 trillion tech sector member, and its stock has continued to rise in 2019, with a gain of 86 percent. Google’s core ad income, which accounted for 84 percent of Alphabet’s total annual sales in the most recent quarter, has consistently grown at a rate of 20% year over year since the company’s most recent earnings announcement on Feb. 3.
According to Dow Jones Market Data, the Silicon Valley company’s market value jumped from $900 billion to $1 trillion in 47 trading days. Alphabet is now valued at 1.83T.
Facebook: 905.32 Billion Dollar Market Cap
It is the only company formed in the 2000s on the list of US tech businesses, making it the youngest company to reach this valuation, with only 17 years under its belt. Facebook had a steady growth in numbers over the years. Although in 2018, the company saw a massive 19% drop after posting disappointing revenue and user figures in the second quarter of the year. Facebook has been able to recover and grow its user base and average income per person.
Facebook joined the elite trillion-dollar club in June this year and is now valuated at $1.01T. The Facebook site, Messenger, Instagram, as well as WhatsApp are some of the most well-known social avenues of Facebook. Personalized adverts that are shown to Facebook and Instagram users account are almost all of Facebook’s revenue. The corporation also has a developing hardware segment that is developing technologies like the Portal video-calling device, Oculus virtual-reality headsets, and smart eyewear, all of which are projected to be ready by the end of 2021.
Tesla: 903.78 Billion Dollar Market Cap
On October 25, 2021, Tesla Inc. became the seventh company to join the club when its stock went up 13% on a contract with Hertz. The TSLA stock rallied past $1000 a share after the car rental company Hertz announced in its blog it was going to add 100,000 Tesla cars to its electric-vehicle fleet through an order to be complete in 2022.
While the Tesla stock was trading at $1000, lots of experts, including Danielle Shay, options director at Simpler Trading, projected even higher target prices. Shay’s estimate was $1,200. However, that did not happen due to the stock sell-off by the company CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla CEO Elon earned nearly $1 billion selling 934,091 shares of the common stock. After November 23, 2021, there were two more tranches. Ever since November 8, 2021, Musk has sold $11.82 billion-worth of the company stock, namely 11.03 million shares. As of this writing, he holds about 5.97 million shares out of his previous stake of about 17 million, having driven the stock price down by 6% in the month.
Conclusion
Who will be the next to reach the trillion-dollar threshold? Only seven companies have joined the elite trillion-dollar club, two of them, Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and Meta Platforms Inc. (FB), still struggling to retain the status. Companies that are close to joining the elite club include Berkshire Hathaway valued at $656 billion, NVIDIA Corporation with $699 billion, TSMC valued at $564 billion, Tencent valued at HKD4.23 trillion ($529 billion), and Visa is valued at $515 billion.
