Early on Tuesday, shares of Amazon traded above $2,050.27 for the first time, making Amazon the second US-based trillion-dollar company.
This comes after Apple became the first trillion-dollar company last month on Aug. 2, when it exceeded a per-share price of $207.05.
Amazon, which first went public in 1997 at $18 per share, started off as an online bookseller, but eventually expanded to include all types of e-commerce and cloud computing.
This milestone was accelerated by a meteoric rise in 2018, with the stock rising almost 75% year-to-date.
Bloomberg Intelligence’s Paul Sweeney says the milestone is “an amazing testament to the growth of e-commerce globally.”
“I’m not really sure what Jeff Bezos is up to, I’m not really sure what he’s spending all his money on, and I’m not too concerned that I’m not getting near-term profits,” Sweeney said. “What I’m betting on is a growth of global e-commerce as it grows from 6 to 7 to 8 to 9% of total global consumer sales, and so as that continues to grow, and most investors feel like that percentage of e-commerce will continue to grow as a percentage of retail sales, the best way to play it has been and continues to be Amazon.”
Some have been less enthusiastic about this milestone. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, whose criticism of Amazon has been unrelenting recently, released a pointed statement Tuesday morning.
Sanders tweeted: “Amazon is worth $1 TRILLION. Jeff Bezos is worth $155 BILLION. Thousands of Amazon workers have to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and public housing to survive. That is what a rigged economy looks like.”
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