For the first time since its conception in 1994, Amazon has become the most valuable company in the world, surpassing other giants in the international market.
Microsoft had been enjoying its reputation as the most valuable publicly-traded company on Earth before Amazon swooped in on Monday and took its place. It surpassed Microsoft by a relatively thin margin: around $810 billion as compared to the latter’s $790 billion.
Just a few years ago, Apple was the strongest company in the entire planet. At one point, it had a market cap that reached over $1.1 trillion. In fact, it’s the first tech company to reach a market cap of over $1 trillion, which it did just this August. It was quickly followed by Amazon, but Microsoft overtook them both by November.
Unfortunately, due to declining phone sales and issues with other countries (i.e. China), Apple’s market value has taken a huge hit. Now, its value is only placed at around $702 billion, down by a full 35% from its prime. $702 billion is still a sizable amount for sure, but not enough to outrank Alphabet Inc (Google), Microsoft, and now, Amazon.
Due to the current volatility of the market though, analysts are predicting that 2019 will merely see an exchange of places for the top four companies.
