Exactly how rich is Apple? Here are some mind-boggling facts
On Thursday, Apple touched a market cap of $1 trillion, a figure that many icons of capitalism had never even dreamed of touching. Just prior to Apple's landmark achievement, the company announced strong Q3 results, and said that it was sitting on a colossal cash reserve of $250bn+. These are mind-boggling figures, but what do they mean? Exactly how rich is Apple? We explain.
Let's see how Apple stands up to US government spending
Let's start with the US. The 2018 US Budget accounts for estimated revenues in the range of $3.6 trillion and expenses of $4 trillion. That puts Apple's market cap at a quarter of the entirety of US federal operations for a year. Meanwhile, with its $250bn+ cash reserves, Apple alone could run the US government for a considerable two weeks.
Apple is officially larger than 174 countries!
Moving on to the larger picture, where does Apple's $1 trillion market cap put it globally? Well, for starters, Apple's $1 trillion market cap is larger than the GDPs of 174 countries in the world, including high-income nations like Switzerland, the Netherlands, oil-giant Saudi Arabia, and even the latest entrant in the trillion-dollar-economy club, Indonesia. For perspective, the world has 195 countries.
Apple could single-handedly buy India's most valuable companies
Closer to home, Apple could, with its $250bn+ cash reserve itself is more than the market cap of India's two most valuable companies, Tata Consultancy Services ($110bn), and Reliance Industries ($108bn), combined. Additionally, with its cash reserves, Apple could buy Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, and Airtel in an all-cash deal and still have enough left-over cash to buy every Indian a JioPhone.
Apple could run the Indian government for seven months
Okay, Apple is bigger than major Indian businesses combined, but how does it compare to the government? If the 2018 Union Budget's estimated total expenses of roughly $430bn is considered, Apple, single-handedly, could run the Indian government for a whopping seven months! Additionally, Apple's market cap is equivalent to one third of India's expected $2.8 trillion GDP in 2018.
Let's talk about you now
As an aside, how rich would you have been if you had invested in Apple? Well, if you had invested $10,000 in Apple in January 1984 when the Macintosh was launched, your investment would have been worth $3.8mn today - a 380-fold increase! A $10,000 investment, had it been made during the 2007 iPhone launch, would be worth $114,260 today - even that's considerable.
