SAN FRANCISCO — Apple, the company started by Steve Jobs, reached a huge milestone Friday by becoming the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a market value of $3 trillion.
It is “a milestone that reflects the lasting impact and resilience of the iPhone, a singular product that continues to transform life and commerce around the world,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Apple gave Nasdaq its best first-half gain in over 40 years, according to CNN. Apple shares closed up by 2.3% at $193.97 on Friday, according to The Associated Press.
Microsoft, t $2.5 trillion, is the second-most valuable public company, according to the AP. Third is an oil giant called Saudi Aramco, worth $2.08 trillion. Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google, Amazon, and Nvidia, is worth $1 trillion.
Apple shares are up about 49% year to date, CNBC reported.
Its shares have also beaten the Nasdaq Composite Index growth by 30%, The Wall Street Journal reported. Shares are up nearly 50% since the beginning of 2023.
It took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in 2018 and two additional years to reach $2 trillion. It took three more years to reach $3 trillion, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The iPhone that was unveiled by Jobs in 2007 is “the crown jewel” for Apple and last year alone it was more than half of Apple’s nearly $400 billion in sales, the AP reported.
The company was launched in a garage in California in 1976, The Wall Street Journal reported. Jobs died in Oct. 2011 and Tim Cook took over. At that time, Apple was valued at $350 billion, the AP reported.
