APPLE became the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a USD 3 trillion market value, marking another milestone for a technology juggernaut that has reshaped society with a line-up of products that churn out eye-popping profits. Apple shares closed up 2.3 per cent at USD 193.97 Friday, bringing its market value to USD 3.04 trillion.

 

Apple is one of a handful of technology companies, including Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia, that helped drive the S&P 500 to a gain of nearly 16 per cent in the first half of the year. The 47-year-old company co-founded by Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs had briefly eclipsed a USD 3 trillion market value on back-to-back days in January 2022, but couldn’t hold on by the time the market closed. Instead, Apple’s stock sunk into a prolonged descent that pushed its market value briefly below USD2 trillion earlier this year amid a slowdown in growth and investor jitters about rising interest rates that affected the entire tech sector.

 

Apple didn’t come close to the USD 3 trillion threshold again until earlier this month when the company unveiled what could be its next big product — a high-priced headset called Vision Pro that thrusts users into artificial settings known as virtual reality. Although the significance of reaching a USD 3 trillion market value is largely symbolic, its magnitude is still breathtaking. Consider, for instance, that USD 3 trillion could buy nearly 9 million homes in the US, based on the average sales price during the past year as calculated by Zillow. It could also buy the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world with plenty of change to spare. If USD 3 trillion were distributed equally to every person in the United States, each person would receive about USD 9,000.