New York, Aug 19 (EFE).- Tech giant Apple on Wednesday became the first US firm to reach the $2 trillion mark in terms of its stock market capitalization, more than Italy, with the world's eighth largest gross domestic product, and almost double the GDP of Spain.

Apple, founded in 1976 by the late Steven Jobs and which has almost doubled its stock market capitalization in just two years, is the most valuable publicly traded company in the world and now is the second to reach the $2 trillion mark after Saudi Arabia's state-run petroleum company Aramco did so in 2019, although that firm since then has lost value.

Shares of the firm headed since 2011 by CEO Tim Cook were trading at $467.77 shortly before 11 am on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, when Apple crossed the $2 trillion threshold, although there is no guarantee that they will close at or above that level by the end of the trading day.

The Cupertino, California-based firm with the logo showing an apple with a bite taken out of it passed the $1 trillion level in August 2018, outpacing big tech rivals like Amazon, Alphabet (the mother company of Google) and Microsoft, and now history is repeating itself despite the dire economic situation posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Analysts on Wednesday emphasized the speed with which Apple got to the $2 trillion level, keeping in mind that on March 23, 2020, it slipped below $1 trillion in market capitalization due to fears about the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on its bottom line.

Nevertheless, the company has shown that it can weather the uncertainties posed by the pandemic and even emerge strengthened from the lockdown phase in the US and Europe, increasing its net profits by 4 percent to $22.5 billion during the first half of 2020 and hiking sales by 6 percent to take in $118 billion.

The firm set a record in the second quarter by hiking sales of Mac computers, which have become a key element in the transition to telecommuting, by 22 percent on an interannual basis, along with services like App Store and Apple TV, which grew by 15 percent due to the need of many people to interact online, while iPhone sales increased by 1.6 percent.

This increase in sales in all geographic areas has occurred amid the temporary closure of Apple stores around the world, and the renewed closing of certain stores that had opened, these new shutdowns due to the increase in coronavirus cases, especially in the US, an impact that was noted particularly in April. Added to this fact has been the slowdown in economic activity in China, where the company manufactures most of its products.

At midday on Wall Street, Apple shares continued to trade strongly at $466.98, putting the firm slightly below the $2 trillion capitalization mark.

EFE nqs/mvs/son/bp

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