Amazon has surpassed Microsoft to become the world"s most valuable publicly traded company. Amazon has a market cap of $810 billion whereas Microsoft sits at $788 billion at the time of writing. Microsoft briefly passed Apple in valuation in late November last year, and, after passing the title back and forth between the two, Microsoft comfortably took the lead which it maintained until now.
The achievement marks the first time Amazon has ever held the title of the most valuable company, usually sitting in second or third place. Jeff Bezos himself took the title of the world"s wealthiest man from Bill Gates in July last year and his wealth currently sits at a comfy $135 billion according to Bloomberg.
Google"s parent company, Alphabet Inc., currently sits in third place, being valued at $752 billion with Apple rounding out the top four sitting at $715 billion at the time of writing. Apple became the first American company to surpass a $1 trillion market cap, peaking at $1.1 trillion, however, given the recent report and temporary trade-halt following less than expected iPhone sales, and the controversy surrounding the bending iPad it is unlikely Apple will reach those heights again anytime soon.
Source: BBC