Apple to become world's first US$3T company

BUSINESS

Apple is about to become the world's first US$3 trillion company

Paul R. La Monica

CNN Digital

Published Monday, December 13, 2021 1:03PM EST

In this Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, file photo, the logo of Apple is illuminated at a store in the city center in Munich. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

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Apple is on the verge of yet another major milestone. The iPhone maker is close to topping a market value of more than 鈥� the first publicly traded company ever to be worth that much.

Shares of Apple were up about 1 per cent in premarket trading Monday to around US$181.75. The stock needs to hit $182.85 for Apple to surpass the $3 trillion mark.

Apple's market value first crossed the in August 2018 and passed in August 2020.

Apple shares are up more than 35 per cent this year alone. The company has benefited from booming demand for its new IPhone 13 and other older models as well as subscription services such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud and its popular App Store.

Sales surged nearly 30 per cent to more than US$83 billion in , which ended in September. The company has a whopping $191 billion in cash as well.

But before long, Apple may have some company in the US$3 trillion club. Microsoft is now worth about $2.6 trillion and Google owner Alphabet's market value is right around $2 trillion. Still giant but further behind are Amazon, which has a market cap of $1.7 trillion, and , worth $1 trillion.