Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday became the second publicly traded company to reach US$1 trillion in market value, hot on the heels of iPhone maker Apple Inc.
The milestone is another sign of Amazon’s swift rise from an online bookseller to a behemoth that sells toilet paper, TVs and just about anything. In its two decades, Amazon has expanded far beyond online shopping and into healthcare, advertising and cloud computing.
Its growth has boosted the fortunes of its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos. His 16 percent stake in Amazon is now worth more than US$160 billion.
Forbes magazine placed him at the top of its list of billionaires for the first time this year, surpassing Microsoft Corp cofounder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett.
Amazon’s stock has increased almost 600 percent in the past five years, including a more than 70 percent surge so far this year.
On Tuesday morning, the stock climbed enough to push the company’s valuation pass the US$1 trillion mark, although it dropped back slightly after that. The stock closed at US$2,039.51 on Tuesday, about US$11 short of keeping its valuation above US$1 trillion.
Apple topped the US$1 trillion mark early last month. Saudi Arabia’s national energy company, Aramco, is widely believed to be worth much more than either Amazon or Apple.
Amazon’s growing power has made it a target of politicians. US President Donald Trump has said the company should pay the US Postal Service more in shipping costs.
US Senator Bernie Sanders has frequently noted the disparity between what Amazon’s warehouse workers make and Bezos’ vast fortune.
Amazon has remained publicly silent about Trump’s criticism, but has called Sanders’ comments “misleading.”
Wall Street has become very enthusiastic about Amazon’s businesses outside of retail. Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing services to companies and governments, and Amazon’s advertising division makes billions by selling ads to companies that want their products to show up when shoppers search on the site.
Those profitable businesses have helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store. Amazon saw its quarterly profit soar past US$2 billion for the first time earlier this year as the online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses all kept growing.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS