Apple touches $3 trillion market value mark, becomes world’s most valuable company

Apple Inc on Monday became the first company to reach the $3 trillion stock market value, with investors envisaging the iPhone maker will keep launching best-selling products as it explores new markets such as automated cars and virtual reality. However, the Cupertino company ended the day a hair below the $3 trillion milestone.

On the first day of trading in 2022, Apple’s shares hit an intraday record high of $182.88, putting Apple's market value just above $3 trillion. The stock ended the session up 2.5% at $182.01, with Apple's market capitalization at $2.99 trillion.

With Apple now becoming the world's most valuable company, investors kept on betting that consumers will continue to shell out top dollar for iPhones, MacBooks and services such as Apple TV and Apple Music.

Apple shared the $2 trillion market value club with Microsoft Corp, which is now worth about $2.5 trillion. The above $1 trillion market value club has Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Tesla Inc, while Saudi Arabian Oil Co is valued at about $1.9 trillion, according to Refinitiv.

Apple's shares have climbed around 5,800% since co-founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in January 2007.

After Tim Cook took over in 2011 following Jobs' death, Apple has sharply increased its revenue from services like video streaming and music. That helped Apple reduce its reliance on the iPhone to about 52% of total revenue in fiscal 2021 from over 60% in 2018, pleasing investors worried the company relied too much on its top-selling product.

The rapid embrace of technologies such as 5G, virtual reality and artificial intelligence has also increased the allure of Apple and other Big Tech companies.