Microsoft Extends its Lead Over Amazon and Apple as the Most Successful U.S. Company

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975 in Albuquerque, NM. It moved its headquarters to a Seattle suburb (Redmond) in 1986. On Friday, June 7, 2019, Microsoft’s market capitalization reached over $1 trillion, after its stock closed at $131.40 per share. This makes Microsoft the most valuable company in the United States today. According to MarketWatch.com, Microsoft has extended its lead by more than $100 billion over another Seattle-based company Amazon (worth $881.2 billion) and Apple (worth $874.9 billion).

Part of this success can be attributed to Microsoft’s focus on cloud services. According to the transcript posted on Microsoft Investor Relations Web site, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that:

• Office 365 commercial has 180 million users
• Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), which is an add-on service for Office 365, has an installation base of 100 million
• Over 100 million Outlook apps have been installed on Android and iOS
• Windows 10 is installed on 800 million devices
• More than 95% of the Fortune 500 companies run their workloads on Microsoft cloud
• 91% of the Fortune 100 companies use Microsoft Teams in Microsoft 365
• Over 150 organizations have more than 10,000 active users in Microsoft 365

The Successes and Troubles of Tech Giants

Apple was the first publicly-traded American company to hit the $1 trillion valuation in 2018, followed by Amazon a month later. Apple is an amazing success story, especially considering it was 90-days away from declaring bankruptcy in 1997. Microsoft hit the $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time on April 30, 2019. As their stock value goes up and down, these giant organizations are likely to trade places at the top. However, there is one thing that may keep Microsoft at the top of the list a bit longer than usual. That one thing is the fact that some of the most valuable companies, like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, are facing the heat from the government investigators. Just recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have started investigating these four companies and the U.S. Congress is also starting it’s own investigations soon. The DOJ is investigating Apple and Google, while FTC is investigating Facebook and Amazon. Microsoft, if you recall, was accused of monopoly by the U.S. government because of its bundling of Internet Explorer Web browser with the Windows operating system. The DOJ reached an agreement with Microsoft and the case was settled on November 2, 2001. This time around Microsoft is out of trouble, while these other tech companies are facing scrutiny because of the way they run their businesses.

History of Market Capitalization Milestones

The technology industry is reaching the market capitalization milestones faster than other industries in the United States. Three tech companies have reached the $1 trillion milestone in less than a year and others are getting closer. This has never happened in our history.

Apple hit the $1 trillion mark on August 2, 2018. Amazon briefly hit that mark about a month later on September 4, 2018 to become the second company to hit the $1 trillion valuation, and Microsoft became the third company, less than 8 months later, on April 25, 2019 to reach the historic milestone.

Google is another tech company that’s closing in on the $1 trillion valuation. Its headquarters are in Mountain View, CA and currently it is worth $739 billion. Because the greater Seattle area in Washington State and the Silicon Valley in California are among the large technology hubs in the United States, it’s no surprise that all of these tech companies are located on the west coast. However, new technology hubs are emerging in North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Colorado so things can only get better for the U.S. tech industry.

What I find interesting is the how quickly these mega corporations are reaching these milestones when compared to the other industries in our nations history since 1776. When Apple’s valuation hit $1 trillion, VisualCapitalist.com posted the market cap milestones in a graphic format. Here’s my version of their data in table format, plus Amazon and Microsoft added to the list, followed by the graphic representation posted by them.

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