When Amazon became the most valuable company in the world

Amazon surpassed Microsoft when it rose by 3.4%, to $797bn, at the close of the US stock market on Monday January 7 2019.

According to CNN, the company rose by 1% on Tuesday January 8, taking its value to almost $810bn compared with Microsoft at $790bn.

Business Day reported that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos topped the Bloomberg billionaires' index in 2018, gaining the most in terms of net worth for two years in a row. 

Bezos, who founded the company in 1994, topped the Forbes list with a net worth of $136.9bn, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates on $94.6bn.

Amazon has expanded immensely from being a small Seattle firm selling second-hand books. According to BBC, Amazon won the rights to broadcast live sport including the English Premier League and ATP tennis. It also purchased US supermarket chain Whole Foods Markets for $13.7bn in 2017.

In September 2018, the Amazon stock briefly reached a market cap of $1-trillion when it rose by 1.9% to $2,050,50 a share on September 4, CNBC reported. Amazon was the second US-listed company to reach the $1-trillion mark following Apple, whose stock reached the mark in August 2018.

Apple was surpassed by Microsoft as the most valuable company on November 27, after Microsoft's shares rose by 0.6% placing its market value at $828.1bn by the close for the day, Bloomberg reported. Microsoft passed Apple by more than $1bn in value after iPhone unit sales concerns caused the Apple stock to tumble.

According to CNBC, investors have been concerned since Apple announced that it would no longer report unit sales and revenue figures for the iPhone.

Reuters reported that Apple cut its quarterly revenue forecast to $84bn as opposed to the original $89bn -$93bn forecast with CEO Tim Cook blaming it on slow iPhone sales in China.