(soft music) - [Narrator] This August, Apple became the most valuable publicly
traded company in the world. Overtaking Aramco as its market
cap soared past $2 trillion for the first time ever. - And that is a $2 trillion milestone. - Shares of the company increased nearly 60% this year. I mean, it really is history. - [Narrator] But the
company's road to $2 trillion, hasn't been a straight climb. After founder, Steve
Jobs passed away in 2011, many investors doubted that
his successor, Tim Cook could fill his shoes and
propel the company forward. - Really a trillion dollar market cap wasn't part of the discussion back then. It was much more about whether Tim Cook could even sustain the level
of success that they'd had. - [Narrator] But amidst lawsuits,
regulatory investigations, and an ongoing trade war,
Apple's shares have surged. This is how Apple became the most valuable publicly
traded company in the world. - Introducing Apple II, the
easy to operate home computer. - [Narrator] Apple first
launched its Apple II home computer in 1977, revolutionizing the industry in the world. But to follow its rise to the very top, a good place to start is August, 2018. When Apple reached its
$1 trillion market cap, for the first time ever surpassing other tech giants
by billions of dollars. - Apple is now as valuable as the four biggest US banks combined. And if you'd put $10, 000 in Apple in 1980 today, you'd be a millionaire. - [Narrator] The company was coming off one of its strongest years
since the death of Steve Jobs. - Apple had had some
stumbles up through 2016 and there were doubts
about Tim Cook's leadership and the company's products prospects in the China market. Things started to stabilize really later that year and in 2017 and by 2018, I think
people had a sense that the company was really clicking again. The iPhone 10 had come out and you saw the stock just continued to rise and rise and rise and then in the middle of the 2018, it kind of shot out to
get over the milestone. - [Narrator] In July,
2018, the company reported its best third quarter ever. Its flagship iPhones
remained widely popular and sales from the app
store and other services had hit all time highs, but this wasn't going to last. About a month later, Apple released a new suite of iPhones, which included it's most
expensive model yet. (audience applauds) - This is iPhone 10S. It is the most advanced
we've ever created. - They were riding high in 2018, going into the launch of the
new phones later that year, they were sounding very confident that those phones would succeed. - [Narrator] But things
didn't go as expected. In January, 2019, Apple announced it had missed its expectation for iPhone sales. This had a lot to do with
the ongoing trade war between the US and China. - The Chinese economy was suffering and purchases of iPhones
in China fell sharply. The higher price phone, I think people felt
underwhelmed by the new features and questioned whether it
was worth spending that much. - [Narrator] In response,
the company slashed it's quarterly revenue forecast for the first time in over 15 years. Since its peak, the company lost more than $400 billion in market value. 2018 turned out to be Apple's
worst yearly stock performance since the financial crisis. And for some skeptics this fall from grace seemed to confirm their
doubts that Tim Cook would successfully lead the company. Then in March, 2019, Cook move to dramatically
expand his strategy, the company started in 2017. - Today, we're excited to extend
our services even further, making them even more entertaining, more useful and more informative. - [Narrator] During a special event in Cupertino, California, the company announced the Apple
credit card, Apple TV plus, and a number of new finance
gaming and new services. - This was something
that had already been set in motion before and that Tim Cook had really been hammering
on for a couple of years at that point. And it was really part of an
effort to transform the company from being focused on gadgets, to being focused on
gadgets and the services that attach themselves to those gadgets. - [Narrator] Amid press around the event, Apple stock price continued to rise. The company's big bet on services was starting to pay off. - In the spring of 2019, the US China trade war
was gathering momentum. Donald Trump was threatening
and imposing new tariffs and there was a great concern for Apple that its iPhones and other gadgets could get more expensive for US consumers as a consequence of this. - [Narrator] For years,
Trump has pressured Apple to move more of its production to the US. - And that was something
that really wasn't feasible on a mass scale for Apple. In fact, around this time, they were planning to shift manufacturing of the one product that they were still making
in the US over to China and that was their highest
end Mac desktop computer. Cook was able to largely
navigate around the tariffs and avoid having much damage
to Apple as a consequence. - [Narrator] With key
products, such as iPhones exempted from sanctions, Apple stock continue to gain momentum. But amid a surge of growth, Apple's new focus on
services brought scrutiny from federal regulators. In the US the company
faced antitrust probes related to its app store where many of the services are based. But this didn't seem to faze investors. Over the course of the year. Apple has bought back around $80 billion worth of its own shares,
further juicing the stock price. And by January 3rd, the
company's share price had more than doubled
from the year before. Apple's future looked promising and then this happened. - [Reporter] Chinese authorities have traced a new deadly virus back to this seafood market
in the city of Wuhan. - The coronavirus has spread
to countries across the world. - So via border restrictions and global share market free falls, attesting our politics,
economies and society. - [Narrator] As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, Apple's manufacturing hubs in China were hit, especially hard. - Like most companies, Apples start knows that have been in
February of this year, the coronavirus was scaring investors and Apple was probably more exposed to it than most companies because
it had emanated from China. Apple's contract manufacturers in China had to close their factories for a time as they dealt with the coronavirus impact. - [Narrator] But Apple
stock quickly bounced back. In the U S the federal reserve enacted a colossal stimulus plan to
pump cash into the economy, lifting the markets,
including stocks like Apple, and as people's lives changed, technology became even more essential. - How is this whole working
from home thing going for you? - During the pandemic
period, people were at home had to work and their
children had to use computers or tablets to be able to go to school. People didn't have any other entertainment other than what they could do at home. So they were watching more TV programming and streaming music and downloading apps. All of that benefited Apple. - [Narrator] On July 30th, Apple
released an earnings report that highlighted an 11%
increase in revenue. In April, we expected year over
year performance to worsen, but we saw better than expected
demand in may and June. We attribute this increase in demand to several interactive causes, including a strong iPhone SE launch, continued economic stimulus. - [Narrator] Following the news, Apple shares continued to balloon and on August 19th, the company reached a
$2 trillion market cap for the first time ever becoming the most valuable
publicly traded company in the world. - At this point, few people would bet
against Apple's ability to execute, but at the same time, there's no guarantee that the stock is gonna keep
going up the way it has. Apple faces a number of
significant challenges on the regulatory front, it's a subject of antitrust investigations in the US and Europe, it's also at war with
a number of companies that are criticizing it
over its business practices in the app store and elsewhere. And it's more exposed than probably any other American company
to the US China trade Wars. - [Narrator] In the midst
of a volatile market, Apple shares continue to see big swings. (soft music)
