PetroChina was the first for a brief period back in 2007.
Apple is the first trillion-dollar company in the United States, though.
Apple becomes the first $1T company
91–100 of 352 posts
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
The VOC basically owned the entirety of trade in SEA. It's not hard to imagine a valuation of 7 trillion when they had a monopoly of an entire continent's worth of trade (spices!) for two centuries.
Let's put it this way. According to Maddison, https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/relea... The entire world's GDP in 1700 was $371 Billion (1990 International Dollars). That would mean the VOC's value then was ~10x the global GDP, which I find hard to believe. Or if that doesn't convince you, consider the world population in 1700 was 700 million people. That would mean the Dutch Indies Company's va…
10,000! is quite a large number, to be fair.
Kidding aside, I agree: I'm also quite dubious of this article's claim on the East India company being worth as much as was computed.
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because investing has become integral in personal finance and market cap gives an estimate of a company's value, room to grow, etc.
I appreciate how you state that investing has become an internal part of personal finance. I agree with you, but unfortunately nobody taught us this where I am from.
Same for me, other than tidbits I got from my parents occasionally. Like many of the important things I learned in life, I had to teach myself.
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#94Good for it. Becoming a trillion dollar company selling quality products people love. Not data mining everything about your life and using it for advertising (Google), ruthlessly destroying competition (Microsoft), or destroying the environment (Exxon). How old fashioned.
On the other hand. I think Google creates way more value for the world, they are just not as good as Apple at capturing that value. Android, Maps, Docs, Gmail, Navigation, Analytics are all (mostly) free.
Any financial analyst would tell you their ad revenue, or even their market position would be at serious risk without each of the products you mentioned. Building and maintaining product suite is the cost on the ad revenue.
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#95Good for it. Becoming a trillion dollar company selling quality products people love. Not data mining everything about your life and using it for advertising (Google), ruthlessly destroying competition (Microsoft), or destroying the environment (Exxon). How old fashioned.
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Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#96An honest question, why do people really care about the market capitalisation of a company?
The trillion dollar mark is an artificial one for sure. But the market capitalization is a good proxy for the financial power of a company.
It's basically what the market values the entire company to be worth. If an alien has $1 trillion dollars, it can theoretically buy Apple (if the shareholders are willing to sell, and if the US regulatory agencies would approve the acquisition.)
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#97It's worth noting that this is the first U.S. company to hit $1 trillion, not in the world. Also, it's still intraday, so Apple has not technically reached that point yet.
> this is the first U.S. company to hit $1 trillion What's the other one?
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is (or was?) worth over $1 trillion
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#98It's worth noting that this is the first U.S. company to hit $1 trillion, not in the world. Also, it's still intraday, so Apple has not technically reached that point yet.
> this is the first U.S. company to hit $1 trillion What's the other one?
PetroChina did it in 2007: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/petrochina-soars-to-1-tril...
*edited to include link
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#99Here's what a trillion dollars looks like: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company
#100I went to grad school with a guy who, the day Apple stock hit $14 a share, decided to spend $500 of his grad student stipend to buy some. He figured Apple's cash on hand was worth more than $14 a share. I thought he was nuts. I was an idiot.
doesn't mean he held them though
yeah - I sold Amazon @ $120 and was a genius for a short period.