Amazon becomes world’s second $1tn company

Amazon has become the second company to be valued by Wall Street at $1tn, a matter of weeks after Apple reached the milestone first.

On Tuesday, a rise in the share price of Amazon, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the US, briefly took it above the trillion-dollar watermark for the first time. The company’s value hovered just shy of $1tn before noon.

Achieving the valuation marks the latest chapter in an astonishing story of growth for the company, founded by businessman Jeff Bezos in Seattle, Washington, in 1994.

Less than 25 year later, the company has garnered a major presence in everything from retail, to groceries, to video streaming, helping it rack up revenues of $178bn (£139bn) last year.