The American technology company Microsoft became the second American company in history, after Apple, to reach a market capitalization of 2,000 billion dollars yesterday.
Microsoft’s stock went on the New York Stock Exchange during trading to $265.79, above the $265.55 needed to break the highly symbolic $2,000 billion market cap. Later, the share lost some value again, and Microsoft had to hand in its membership again.
The stock closed the trading day on the Nasdaq index at $ 265.51. It is already up more than 19 percent this year.
Microsoft was founded in April 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Satya Nadella, who has headed Microsoft since 2014, has transformed it from a software-focused company to a cloud services company.
It took 33 years after Microsoft’s IPO to hit the $1 trillion market cap, but only about two years to make it to $2,000 billion.
Apple became the first American company to break the symbolic barrier last year and is now worth about $2,200 billion.
Companies like Amazon (1,800 billion dollars) and Google parent Alphabet Inc. (1,600 billion dollars) are also gradually knocking on the door of the exclusive club.
