Microsoft’s market valuation crossed $3 trillion for the first time Wednesday, the latest landmark that the nearly 50-year-old software company has passed with increasing speed.
The stock rose Wednesday, to a record-high $402.46, but finished the session just under the needed level, $403.65, to top $3 trillion.
Microsoft became a billion-dollar company in 1986, then crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2019 and $2 trillion two years later.
The company’s success in recent years has been driven by two factors: its growing Azure cloud computing business and, more recently, optimism that it will be one of the companies that will profit most from the spreading use of generative artificial intelligence.
The growth in Microsoft’s market value illustrates the sway large tech stocks have over much of the stock market. Its current market cap is greater than that of nearly 200 of the smallest S&P 500 companies combined, according to Dow Jones Market Data, as well as that of five of the benchmark index’s sectors.
Microsoft earlier this year dethroned Apple as the most highly valued, publicly-listed company in the world. Apple, which crossed the $3 trillion mark in June—it was the first company to do so—has faced concerns about its sales.
Microsoft’s success under Chief Executive Satya Nadella has come largely through acquisitions and savvy investments in new areas. His largest acquisition Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, which he saw through various legal challenges from regulators in the U.S. and the U.K. The deal increased the size of the company’s gaming business by more than half.
His most recent success has come in artificial intelligence. The company invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, a then unproven non-profit startup that was years away from releasing its hit product ChatGPT. Since then the company has invested more than $10 billion more in the company and uses its technology to power a suite of new AI-powered assistants.
Microsoft is expected to announce its latest quarterly earnings on Tuesday.