MW Broadcom is closing in on $1 trillion market cap - here's how many other companies have achieved that lofty status
By Barbara Kollmeyer
Berkshire Hathaway a lone non-tech achiever
Shares of Broadcom were soaring ahead of Friday's market open, after a bullish forecast on AI chip sales, which could end up pushing the company to a $1 trillion market capitalization.
As of Thursday, Broadcom's $(AVGO)$ market cap stood at $843.78 billion, just over $150 billion and change from that big number, according to FactSet. Its premarket gain of 18% puts Broadcom just shy of $1 trillion market cap.
The $1 trillion club isn't overflowing with members, but Broadcom is joining plenty of tech giants, some of which didn't find it easy to hang onto that level at first.
Back in August 2018, Apple $(AAPL)$ officially became the first-ever company to close above a $1 trillion market cap - $3.74 trillion as of Thursday's close. Those who invested in the iPhone maker from the time it broke that $1 trillion level, would have seen shares gain 376%.
Another AI chip favorite, Nvidia $(NVDA)$ vaulted to a $1 trillion market cap in June 2023, more than tripling that number since then, with a current market cap of $3.36 trillion. Up 177% so far this year, Nvidia's stock has climbed around 226% since reaching that $1 trillion mark.
Read: 'Magnificent Seven' hits another milestone. Here's why it could continue to dominate the market in 2025.
Close behind Nvidia is Microsoft $(MSFT)$, with a market cap of $3.34 trillion, after reaching the $1 trillion mark back in 2019, boosted at the time by cloud growth. As for its shares, Microsoft stock is up around 244% since breaching $1 trillion in market cap.
Amazon.com $(AMZN)$ had a battle at the start of its $1 trillion-club journey, first touching that level in 2018, but failing to close above it until February 2020. Billionaire Jeff Bezos' e-commerce giant currently boasts a market cap of $2.4 trillion, and the stock is up around 211% since closing above the $1 trillion mark.
Read: Even after Amazon's 50% stock surge this year, these factors could spur more gains
Meta Platforms $(META)$, with a market cap of $1.59 trillion, first reached that level in mid-2021 when the company, only to surrender the big level later that year and not return until the beginning of 2024. Shares of Mark Zuckerberg's company are up around 76% since it first crossed the $1 trillion line in 2021.
Tesla $(TSLA)$, whose CEO Elon Musk is now worth $442 billion and the wealthiest person on the planet, also did not have an easy ride to the $1 trillion level. Tesla first reached that level it in October 2021, losing it in December that year, regaining it briefly in April 2022 only to lose it again and not recapturing that until November 2024.
Since the Nov. 5 election, and after Musk's bet that President-elect Donald Trump would win the election, a near 70% stock surge has added around $561.3 billion to Tesla's market cap, currently at $1.34 trillion. Tesla stock is only up 22% from its first try at the $1 trillion club, but 68% higher as 2024 winds down.
This year also saw Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing $(TSM)$ briefly reach the $1 trillion mark this summer, then again in October, and the semiconductor group remains close with a market cap of $845.3 billion. The stock is up 84% this year.
In the non-tech camp, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway $(BRK.A)$ closed above the $1 trillion market cap level this summer, and has hovered near it since. The conglomerate's market cap stood at $988.39 billion as of Thursday's close, with shares up 28% so far this year.
-Barbara Kollmeyer
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2024 07:43 ET (12:43 GMT)
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