Apple becomes first public US company to hit $2.5T market capitalization

After a two-day rally, Apple has hit a new record high stock price and a market capitalization of $2.5 trillion in pre-opening trading on Thursday.

Shares of the Cupertino tech giant were up more than 2% in trading on Wednesday, leading to a market valuation above the $2.5 trillion threshold for the first time. The new high comes a little less than a year after Apple hit $2 trillion.

The company is now the first publicly traded U.S. firm to have surpassed the $2.5 trillion valuation mark.

Earlier in July, the company's share price hit record highs during a rally that has lasted for a couple of weeks. Apple shares have surged 14.33% since the start of 2021.

Apple first hit $2 trillion on August 19, 2020. It then dipped after a mass technology stock sell-off, but returned on September 4, 2020.

While the company had announced its move to Apple Silicon during WWDC in June 2020, it was only after passing $2 trillion that it actually launched its first M1 range. The technical advancements of that range have been critically praised, and have helped the company see rising Mac sales even as the rest of the industry slowed down.

Apple has also subsequently launched its COVID-impacted iPhone 12 range. The great success of that has been described as a supercycle in iPhone sales, and became the world's top-selling 5G phone shortly after launch.

Since reaching $2 trillion, Apple has also launched its Apple One bundle of services, including the introduction of Apple Fitness+.

Despite the coronavirus, the company has also pressed ahead with many more hardware releases. Alongside the brand new AirTags, it launched revised versions of the iPad Pro, the Apple TV 4K — and a redesigned 24-inch iMac.

Even before each of these successful launches, analysts were predicting Apple was capable of reaching $3 trillion. Analyst Gene Munster said in August 2020 that, with 5G and health features, Apple had a "clear path" to that value.

Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast — and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.

If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.

Latest Exclusives

Latest comparisons

10 Comments

seankill 15 Years · 566 comments

About 3 years ago

It’s interesting that some believe large companies need to be broken up but there isn’t too much attention yet on the Big Tech space (definitely growing attention though). These companies are bigger than any ever in existence, it’s probably only a matter of time.

I just hope that they get what they ask for based on their beliefs: regulations. Definitely don’t want to see them broken up though.

sully54 11 Years · 107 comments

Has there been a non-US company that has reached US$2.5 trillion valuation? My understanding is that Apple is the first company to reach this valuation anywhere in the world.

I just find it odd that this article states that it’s the “first public US company” to hit that threshold. While technically true, it just seems unnecessary to make that distinction if it is in fact the first company to do so in the world.

KTR 4 Years · 280 comments

sully54 said:

Has there been a non-US company that has reached US$2.5 trillion valuation? My understanding is that Apple is the first company to reach this valuation anywhere in the world.
I just find it odd that this article states that it’s the “first public US company” to hit that threshold. While technically true, it just seems unnecessary to make that distinction if it is in fact the first company to do so in the world.

Yea. And how can you break apple up? You can’t be a monopoly on your own hardware. They have a string of success retail stores. How can you break that up.? Next thing you know they gonna force apple to sell pc’s? The government does do not understand about technology and how it works.

genovelle 16 Years · 1481 comments

seankill said:

It’s interesting that some believe large companies need to be broken up but there isn’t too much attention yet on the Big Tech space (definitely growing attention though). These companies are bigger than any ever in existence, it’s probably only a matter of time.
I just hope that they get what they ask for based on their beliefs: regulations. Definitely don’t want to see them broken up though.

The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now.

Since Apple doesn’t need outside cash anyway. They will be fine. It’s why when the Pandemic shutdown started they could keep their 147,000 employees fully employed indefinitely.
Talk of splitting a company up because they are successful is nuts especially when there are many competitors that are bigger even. It’s even crazier when they base it’s size on a fickle market that for decades under valued them.

charlesn 11 Years · 1194 comments

genovelle said:
The problem I have is that most are not that big in reality. 2.5 Trillion in theoretical money. When Wall Street or the market determines these numbers are a massive bubble the markets will crash down to reality. The people hurt will be stock holders and employees with stock options maturing now.

There is really no basis for arguing that Apple's stock price is "a massive bubble." It's forward P/E of 28 is actually pretty modest by comparison for a wildly successful company that's a veritable money tree (actually a money forest) when it comes to earnings. Compared to its other FAANG stocks: FB is 26, AMZN is 63, NFLX is 52, and GOOG is 30. Or compare it to Wall Street darling TSLA, with a forward P/E of 129.

And as APPL hits the $2.5 trillion market cap for the first time of any company in history, it's a good time to remind ourselves that Tim Cook has no vision, has been an utter failure and that Apple is just treading water on crappy products and no new ideas until it inevitably fails. Yes, it has been a decade of doom under Cook since Steve died... and I can only hope, as an Apple shareholder, that Cook keeps "failing" like this for another ten years!