Apple becomes first company ever worth $3 trillion

Yesterday the total market value of Apple’s stock reached $3 trillion (roughly £2.2 trillion) for the first time in its history, or indeed in the history of any company in the world.

Other companies currently valued over a trillion dollars include Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Tesla and (outside the world of tech) Saudi Aramco. Even Meta at one point managed to be valued at more than a trillion dollars. But right now, all pale in comparison with Apple.

(As a matter of purely historical interest, there have been a few businesses in previous centuries that arguably reached a higher value once inflation is taken into account. Most famously, the value of the Dutch East India Company has been estimated at 78 million Dutch guilders in 1637, which equates to a little less than $8 trillion in current money – but the historian and economist Lodewijk Petram believes the numbers are vastly inflated.) 

Apple’s value has been rising at a dizzying speed: the company passed the $1 trillion mark just three years ago, and hit $2 trillion a little over a year ago. It broke the $2.5 trillion milestone in July. Of course, this is all perceived value based on share prices: the company doesn’t actually own three times as much property as it did three years ago, nor is it making three times as much revenue.

Nevertheless, if you’d like to hitch your wagon to Apple’s rapidly ascending star – with the caveat that stock values can go down as well as up in value – read our advice on how to buy Apple shares.

This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation (using DeepL) and additional reporting by David Price.