New Milestone
Apple has surpassed US$3 trillion in market capitalization for the first time ever. It has only been about two years and 10 months since the company first crossed the US$2 trillion mark.
On June 30, the last trading day of the first half of the year, Apple closed at US$193.97 (255,000 won) on the New York Stock Exchange, up 2.31 percent from the previous day. Its market capitalization hit US$3.051 trillion. That was about 20 percent larger than second-place Microsoft’s US$2.532 trillion. The U.S. tech giant previously surpassed the US$3 trillion mark three times during trading days in the stock market but this was the first time it has done so at the close of the stock market.
A market capitalization of US$3 trillion is the seventh-largest in the world when compared to the gross domestic product (GDP) of each country in the world. It is just below the sixth-ranked United Kingdom’s GDP (US$3.1589 trillion) and above seventh-ranked France’s GDP (US$2.9234 trillion) in the International Monetary Fund’s GDP rankings (as of 2021). It is also 1.7 times the size of South Korea’s GDP (US$1.7219 trillion).
Many stock market experts were not sure about a rise in Apple’s stock price in 2023 after the company’s growth slowed down in the fourth quarter of last year, with sales declining for the first time in nearly four years. However, the company recently rallied as supply chain issues in China were resolved, its high-priced models enjoyed strong sales, and its service business grew.
In particular, the Vision Pro, a mixed reality (MR) device that Apple took the wraps off in early June, has been seen as the next big thing after the iPhone, despite initial concerns. This has increased the corporate value of Apple, analysts say.