Apple has become the first $1 trillion publicly listed US company, crowning a decade-long rise fuelled by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications.
The tech company's stock jumped 2.8% to as high as $207.05, bringing its gain to about 9% since Tuesday when it reported June-quarter results above expectations and said it bought back $20 billion of its own shares.
Started in the garage of co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976, Apple has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand and other countries. Along the way, it has changed how consumers connect with one another and how businesses conduct daily commerce.
The Silicon Valley firm’s stock has surged more than 50,000% since its 1980 initial public offering, dwarfing the S&P 500's approximately 2,000% increase during the same almost four decades.
During that time, Apple evolved from selling Mac personal computers to becoming an architect of the mobile revolution with a cult-like following.
Mr Jobs, who died in 2011, was succeeded as chief executive by Tim Cook, who has doubled the company's profits but struggled to develop a new product to replicate the society-altering success of the iPhone, which has seen sales taper off in recent years.
In 2006, the year before the iPhone launch, Apple generated less than $20 billion in sales and net profit just shy of $2 billion.
By last year, its sales had grown more than 11-fold to $229 billion - the fourth highest in the S&P 500 – and net income had mushroomed at twice that rate to $48.4 billion, making it the most profitable publicly-listed US company.
One of five US companies since the 1980s to take a turn as Wall Street's largest company by market capitalisation, Apple could lose its lead to the likes of Alphabet Inc or Amazon.com Inc if it does not find a major new product or service as demand for smartphones loses steam.
How Apple grew from garage operation to world leader
Launched on a shoestring budget in a Silicon Valley garage more than four decades ago, Apple survived a near-miss with bankruptcy before soaring to a trillion-dollar market value on Thursday.
The California-based company born of a friendship between Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs is credited with giving rise to smartphone lifestyles and "apps" for nearly everything.
Here are some of the milestones in Apple's history:
April 1976: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne create Apple Computer to sell an eponymous computer hand-built by Wozniak. The company is incorporated the following year.
January 1984: Apple heralds the arrival of its first Macintosh computer with a "1984" television commercial directed by Ridley Scott portraying a bold blow struck against an Orwellian computer culture.
September 1985: Jobs leaves Apple after a power struggle with chief executive John Sculley. Wozniak also departs.
1990s: Competitive pressure from lower-priced personal computers from Microsoft running on Windows software, and some failed products, puts a financial squeeze on Apple, which cuts staff and changes top executives.
September 1997: Jobs returns as chief executive as the company teeters near bankruptcy. Microsoft helps Apple survive with a $150 million investment.
August 1998: Apple releases the all-in-one iMac computer.
October 2001: Apple unveils the iPod and opens its first real-world shops.
April 2003: Apple opens its online iTunes store for digital content, pricing music at 99 cents per song for iPods.
June 2007: Apple unveils the iPhone.
July 2008: Apple launches the online App Store to sell applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
January 2010: Apple introduces the iPad.
October 2011: Jobs, 56, dies after battling pancreatic cancer, having turned over command of Apple to Tim Cook earlier in the year.
September 2014: Apple introduces the Apple Watch.
June 2015: Apple Music streaming service launches including internet radio from Beats, a startup Apple bought the prior year in a deal valued at $3 billion.
January 2016: Apple announces that more than a billion of its devices are in use around the world.
August 2018: Apple surpasses $1 trillion in stock market value.
