Apple‘s market cap reached $800bn for the first time on Monday, prompting suggestions that the tech giant could soon become the world’s first trillion dollar company.
Brian White, an analyst at investment banking firm Drexel Hamilton said Apple has “proven its resilience through its unique ability to develop hardware, software and services that work seamlessly together”.
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He boosted the company’s price target to $202 a share — the highest expectation of Wall Street’s tech industry watchers.
While the first company in the world to hit the $1trn valuation mark was oil giant PetroChina back in 2007, we don’t really think that counts, and neither should you.
To put the trillion dollar figure into perspective, in 2012, only 15 economies in the world had gross domestic product (GDP) exceeding $1trn.
All the gold mined in the world in a year is worth about $115bn.
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By GlobalDataVerdict takes a look at some of the biggest companies expected to reach the trillion dollar mark in the near future, giving ratings out of 10 as to how likely each company is to hit the target.
Amazon
Amazon, the US e-commerce website founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 is currently valued at $455bn.
The company’s stock price has increased by 48 percent over the past year, and is now trading at a record high of more than $948 a share.
“Amazon is likely to be one of the first trillion-dollar market cap companies; it’s just a question of when, not if, in our view,” a Barclays equity research team led by Ross Sandler said in March. “Amazon is arguably the best story in the space, with the most open-ended growth opportunity and most highly functional organisation.”
Verdict rating: 7/10
Alphabet
Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, is currently worth about $650bn, with almost all its revenue coming from its online advertising business.
The US conglomerate owns the likes of YouTube, the video-sharing website and DeepMind, a British artificial intelligence company.
Verdict rating: 8/10
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has a market cap of $434.7bn and a user base approaching 2bn.
When asked what company he thought would be the first to reach a trillion dollar market cap, financial analyst Carter Worth told CNBC: “If I had to pick between Apple and Facebook, I’m going Facebook.”
Verdict rating: 9/10
Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s state energy company and it controls an estimated 18 percent of global oil reserves.
If oil prices and production are favourable, Aramco could be the world’s first trillion-dollar company, according to the Financial Times.
Verdict rating: 8/10
Tesla
Tesla is a major US car maker, energy storage company, and solar panel manufacturer based in Palo Alto, California.
Last month, Tesla surpassed rival Ford’s market cap by $43.1bn, and then overtook General Motors to become the largest car maker in the country.
Tesla shares are now around $322, pushing its market cap to over $53bn.
Billionaire investor Ron Baron has over 1.6m shares in Tesla and believes the company is headed towards a trillion dollar valuation.
“In 2020, we are going to make from present prices four times our money and I think that in 2025, we could make another triple. And in 2030, it could be another triple,” the founder of Baron Capital told CNBC in February.
Verdict rating: 5/10
Microsoft
Microsoft is an American multinational tech company headquartered in Washington has a market cap of $529bn.
After Microsoft’s $26.2bn acquisition of LinkedIn last year, Equities.com analyst Michael Markowski said Microsoft would be the first digital company to reach a trillion dollar market cap.
Aside from the Linkedin deal, Markowski cited other reasons for his prediction, including Microsoft’s free cash flow yield.
Verdict rating: 6/10
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil is the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company.
The American company, headquartered in Texas has a market cap of $348bn.
Verdict rating: 4/10
Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man after Bill Gates is the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which has a market cap of $403.3bn.
Jay Gelb, an analyst with Barclays, told the Financial Times last week that while the company’s first quarter results were shy of his expectations, Berkshire was “well-positioned in our view to benefit from an improving economy, higher short-term interest rates, and potential future accretive acquisitions.”
Verdict rating: 5/10
Johnson & Johnson
The US pharmaceutical giant is the biggest healthcare company in the world. Founded in 1886, it has a market cap of $330.8bn.
The company unveiled its biggest deal in its 130-year history in January, buying Swiss biotech company Actelion for $30bn.
Verdict rating: 4/10
