MS Achieves $2 Trillion Market Cap Thanks to 'Windows 11'... Only 2.2 Years After Surpassing $1 Trillion

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Microsoft (MS), the world's largest software company, has surpassed a market capitalization of $2 trillion. It took just 2 years and 2 months since April 2019, when it first exceeded $1 trillion in market cap. Surpassing $2 trillion in market cap makes it the second company ever worldwide, following Apple.

On the 24th (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange, MS closed at $266.69 per share, up 0.5% from the previous session. Accordingly, MS's market capitalization was calculated at $2.009 trillion (approximately 2,276.2 trillion KRW).

Unlike on the 22nd (local time), when it briefly touched $2 trillion during trading hours, MS comfortably settled above the $2 trillion mark at the closing price on this day.

MS's growth is remarkable. It took 33 years after its listing for MS to surpass a $1 trillion market cap. After becoming the third company to exceed $1 trillion in 2019, following Apple and Amazon, it surpassed $2 trillion in just 2 years and 2 months. Since March last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in earnest, its stock price has surged about 65%.

MS's breakthrough of the $2 trillion market cap came after unveiling the new operating system 'Windows 11' for the first time in over five years, leading to evaluations that MS has regained competitiveness without resting on its previous successes.

Bloomberg assessed that especially since the appointment of CEO Satya Nadella in 2014, MS has successfully transformed its business model from PC operating systems to cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and mobile computing.

CNBC also analyzed that "under CEO Satya Nadella's leadership, MS has transformed into a 'young company.'"

By actively exploring new growth engines such as cloud computing and mergers and acquisitions, MS's stock price has surged over 600% during Nadella's tenure. This contrasts with the 43% decline in MS stock during the 14 years led by former CEO Steve Ballmer.

Early in his tenure, CEO Nadella released Office apps including Word and Excel on Apple iOS and Google Android, and unlike previous versions, offered free updates to Windows 10, fostering a cooperative relationship with the software industry through an open approach.

MS announced that the newly released Windows 11 also supports apps running on Google Android.

Thanks to this, unlike other 'IT giants' such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, which face strong antitrust pressure from regulators, MS has not undergone any significant antitrust investigations since Nadella took office, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, among big tech companies, Amazon is expected to be the next member of the '2 trillion dollar' club.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.