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NEW YORK — Apple's stock ended trading Friday valued at $3 trillion, the only company ever to reach that milestone.
Shares rose more than 2% Friday at a record $193.97. With 15.7 billion shares outstanding, that stock price pushed Apple to its historic market value.
Apple has been here once before: On Jan. 3, 2022, Apple hit the $3 trillion mark during intraday trading, but it failed to close there.
The company's stock closed Thursday at a record-high share price for the third-straight day, but it merely budged 0.2% higher. Apple easily surpassed the $190.73 level it needed to break $3 trillion at Friday's market open.
The sky-high valuation for the tech giant comes on the heels of its risky launch of the Apple Vision Pro earlier this month and a stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings report in May – even though sales and profit slumped.
The Vision Pro, which will go on sale next year, impressed tech journalists who got an early preview of the augmented reality device. But it is entering a nascent market with little mainstream consumer adoption. Apple plans to charge a hefty $3,499 for its headset, which currently has limited apps and experiences, and requires users to stay tethered to a battery pack the size of an iPhone.
Apple's stock has skyrocketed 49% this year, boosted by a broader surge in Big Tech stocks as investors have jumped onto the AI bandwagon. Nvidia leads the S&P 500 with a 190% jump this year, followed by Meta at 138%.
This year's stock market success for Apple comes in sharp contrast to 2022. At the start of 2023, Apple's market cap fell below $2 trillion in trading for the first time since early 2021.
