Microsoft Joins Apple In $2 Trillion Valuation Club

Microsoft Corp. reached a new milestone as the company's market valuation reached $2 trillion for the first time.

The Washington-based technology company became the second U.S. publicly listed company to achieve the feat, propelled by bets its dominance in enterprise software and cloud computing will further grow in a post-pandemic world.

Microsoft hit the threshold as shares climbed as much as 1.2% Tuesday before closing at $265.51, and giving the company a closing market cap of $1.99 trillion.

Microsoft topped the $1 trillion market cap mark in 2019.

Microsoft trails only Apple Inc. among the most valuable companies in the world. Apple became the first public U.S. company to hit the $2 trillion mark in August.

Oil company Saudi Arabian Oil Co. has also previously surpassed the $2 trillion figure, although its market valuation Tuesday was $1.88 trillion, CNN Business said.

"It's an attractively valued name within the technology sector, and it should benefit from both the economy reopening as well as from a more pronounced shift toward the cloud," Bloomberg quoted Hilary Frisch, senior research analyst at Clearbridge Investments, as saying.

Cloud has been a major driver in the recent growth rally of Microsoft, with total revenue from that segment reaching $17.7 billion in the third quarter, Benzinga reported.

According to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, "digital adoption curves are not slowing down" over a year into the pandemic.

"They are accelerating, and it's just the beginning," Nadella said in quotes by CNET.

A Wedbush report last month estimated more growth ahead for Microsoft, with Azure's Cloud momentum "still in its early days," according to Geek Wire.