Apple Wins The Race To $2 Trillion Market Cap

It took Apple, Inc. AAPL 42 years to become the world’s first $1 trillion company. It took Apple just two years to become its first $2 trillion company.

With the stock hovering near the $468 per share mark, Apple’s market cap hit $2 trillion for the first time on Wednesday morning as investors eagerly anticipate the first 5G iPhone expected to be unveiled next month. Apple bulls are hoping the 5G rollout will trigger a massive upgrade cycle among existing iPhone users.

Race To $2 Trillion: Apple famously won the race to the $1 trillion mark back in August 2018, beating out Alphabet, Inc. GOOG GOOGL and Microsoft Corporation MSFT, which had market caps of $858 billion and $817 billion at the time, respectively.

Apple’s closest competitor in the race to $2 trillion was Microsoft at $1.6 trillion and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN at $1.58 trillion.

Path To $2 Trillion: Apple was famously birthed in co-founder Steve Jobs’ garage in Palo Alto in 1976. Jobs and co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne began with the production of the Apple I personal computer, which initially sold for $666.

Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO in July 1997 after a 12-year absence. Following the turn of the millennium, Apple and Jobs could do no wrong. The iPod launched in 2001 and sold 100 million units in its first six years. The iPhone launched in 2007 and became the best selling product of all time. In fact, Apple hit the $100 billion market cap level for the first time in 2007, the same year the iPhone launched.

Apple has come a long way in the 13 years since the iPhone hit the market but analysts see the stock taking a breather over the next 12 months. The average price target among the 36 analysts covering the stock is $440.

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