SAN FRANCISCO, June 30 (AP) -- Apple has become the first publicly traded company to close at a $3 trillion market cap. This marks another milestone for Profits Bang, a technology giant that has transformed society with a range of high-profile products. Apple shares rose 2.3% to $193.97 on Friday, giving it a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion. Apple is one of the few tech companies, including Microsoft and chip maker Nvidia, to contribute to the nearly 16% rise in the S&P 500 index in the first half of this year.
The 47-year-old company, co-founded by Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs, surpassed $3 trillion in market capitalization for a short period of time in January 2022 but failed to sustain it until the close. Instead, as growth slowed and investors worried about rising interest rates that would hit the tech sector as a whole, Apple stock plunged into a prolonged downtrend, briefly pushing its market value below $2 trillion at the beginning of the year. Apple never got close to the $3 trillion mark again, but earlier this month the company announced what could be its next big product: an expensive device called Vision Pro that puts users in an artificial environment called virtual reality. announced a new headset. While the importance of reaching his $3 trillion market cap is largely symbolic, the scale is still staggering.
For example, consider that $3 trillion could buy about 9 million homes in the US, based on Zillow's average sales price over the past year. And with enough spare change, you might be able to buy the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world. If $3 trillion were distributed equally among all Americans, each person would receive about $9,000. Microsoft is the second most valuable among publicly traded companies at $2.5 trillion. Oil giant Saudi Aramco has a market capitalization of $2.08 trillion. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Amazon, and Nvidia, is valued at over $1 trillion.
Nearly two years after the Cupertino, Calif.-based company first hit $1 trillion, and after surpassing $2 trillion market cap for the first time in August 2021, it closed at $3 trillion. It took less than two years.
Introduced by Jobs in 2007 with its signature presentation artistry, the iPhone remains a jewel in Apple's realm. Last year, the device accounted for more than half of the company's nearly $400 billion in revenue.