Amazon passed Microsoft in market value for the first time

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

Amazon briefly surpassed Microsoft on Wednesday to become the third most valuable company in the world.

Microsoft Logo at Ignite
Microsoft Logo at Ignite (Image credit: Windows Central)

Amazon on Wednesday surpassed Microsoft's market value for the first time. As first noted by CNBC, Amazon's market value reached $702.5 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday, surpassing Microsoft's cap of $699.2 billion at the same time.

Following the start of trading on Thursday, Microsoft reclaimed its spot ahead of Amazon, but the two companies have remained neck and neck throughout the day. Both companies are among the most valuable in the world, with only Apple and Alphabet coming in ahead of them. Tencent and Facebook round out the six biggest companies by market cap, according to CNBC.

The tussle mirrors one that saw Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos become the world's richest person last summer, overtaking a spot previously held by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. At the time, the shift came as Amazon's share price rose by 1.3 percent, bringing Bezos' net worth north of 90 billion. The shift didn't last long: Bezos dipped below Gates again later that day. However, Bezos has since reclaimed the title with a current net worth of $121 billion to Gates' $91.1 billion, according to Bloomberg's billionaire tracker.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

28 Comments
  • Not surprised, Amazon know the value of the consumer market...
  • Yes, consumers first. That's how Apple and Alphabet sits comfortably in the first 2 spots.
  • You know that Amazon is leading thanks to AWS? It's all about the cloud. Amazon is still leading there but Azure is getting closer and closer.
  • Okay, if Amazon is leading thanks to AWS, Microsoft is a "cloud first company" and Azure is getting closer and closer, how on Earth is Amazon passing Microsoft for the first time?
  • Exactly, you beat me too it.  I thought he might be just making a silly sarcastic comment, or he may actually think the comment made sense, who knows. lol
  • Because this brilliant CEO does t know what the he'll he is talking about with all his clue blah, blah, blah...Just like I've said for years now. Kudos.
  • You've been saying the same idiotic thing for years then. Microsoft's valuation has only gone up under Nadella. Your irrational hatred for him is blinding all objectivity. You should try to stop embarrassing yourself.
  • If so idiotic...how did this "cloud or just company " get smoked by Amazon and their cloud theory? The only thing idiotic is your embarrassing denial of what is happening, dumb ass.
  • Microsoft's valuation has only gone up under Nadela - fact. And let's get some context: MS has just gone from 3rd to 4th highly valued company on the planet. The entire world. So what? Microsoft. Is. A. Still. Successful. Business. Fact.
  • So receding to the 4th position is a good sign?
  • I've to say, it's just the beginning.
    * UWP runs on IOT, Win10PC, S, ARM, Xboxes, AR, MR.
    * UWP + free unlimited Cloud sync gave birth to XPA thus GamePass.
    * Unity, Unreal, Switch, Win10, Xboxes development uses VisualStudio.
    * Free SVN, GIT, Project manager, ticket system for small teams.
    * I forgot the name of the country, but apparently, water station + water meter + Azure implementation is undergoing.
    * And I think it's Singapore, traffic center + traffic lights + azure is undergoing.
    * Other industrial integrations
    * Azure is the backbone of many games including AAAs.
    * Havok is used in many AAAs (Uncharted, Zelda, Halo).
    * e-sports + mixer
    * mixer: if you buy the game the streamer's playing, streamer get a cut. it's win-win business.
    The most important turning point for MS this year is Win10 on ARM imo. Not only PC like applications but you can do XPA on those.
    AWS is making money, the e-shop business is actually losing money, but Amazon is not going down anytime soon, investor will have no fear to invest it.
    Azure is catching up with AWS is also a fact tho.
    ps: not all investors know what they are investing tho, remember Pokémon Go?
  • It still blows my mind that people blame Nadella, but Balmer was the one to launch all of the consumer products that failed to succeed... But in there minds, if a few loyal Microsoft fans are buying it it's a success. Do they not realize share prices of Microsoft never moved for so many years because Balmer kept pumping out one failed consumer product after another. Balmer succeeded with Xbox, Surface and Windows 7....but failed with so many other products. Also Balmer is too blame for Microsoft's mobile failure. 
  • Some will argue that alot of things going successfully for Nadella was not of his doing as well.
  • That's just silly talk... a lotta synergy in MS products are build under Nadella tbh... Like TheCudder said, during Balmer's lead, there was no synergy in all their products.
  • Microsoft is in the 2nd position. Although slowly catching up with Amazon, the gap is big. AWS is far ahead of Azure.
  • Satya might say that he is interested in the long term strategy. I think MS could be the first Trillion Dollar company if they could successfully deliver the projects that they are working on (Andromeda, IoT Core, MR on XBOX along with Azure...)
  • There can be no one as short sighted as Nadella. He has no long term strategy and all he did once he became the CEO was to kill all those projects that weren’t making money, just so he could please the shareholders and be different from Ballmer. That is how Microsoft is making more many after Ballmer. But not for long now. I tell you, had Nadella had been the CEO around the time of first two Surface devices, he would have killed it as it was making them lose money.
  • Apple will be the first trillion dollar company.   No amount of Windows tablets is going to push MS to that level.    
  • Go Nutella! Don't stop until this is left a complete wreck for the next poor CEO!!!! Down with the consumer base!!!!
  • Can you please stop calling the guy Nutella. What do you think you are achieving by doing so except being extremely not funny and pathetic? Dude is CEO of one of the top corporations on the planet and you are just probably poor and retarded idiot on the internet. What gives you the right to insult or make fun of obviously smarter ppl than you? Feel good now?
  • Can you NOT USE RETARDED describing someone please?  I find that MUCH more offencive.  I have a son with autism and if you said that near me You would probably be picking up your teeth with a broken arm.  THANKS!   Take your own advice there REOMW!
  • Can you NOT USE SON describing the situation. I find that MUCH more offenCive I don't have a son, but want a son and if you said that near me You would probably be picking up your teeth with a broken arm. THANKS! Take your own advice there STEVE ADAMS. (I hope now you realize how stupid you are)
  • I see killing Windows Phone is going really well, isn't it? 😂😂😂😂😂
  • Killing WP doesn't make a sh*t difference. Get smart already. Daniel, please!
  • Most of the Microsoft services are failing because they don’t have their own operating system where they can run effeciently on.
  • I don't see Amazon's own operating system. Or maybe I'm just blind.. hmm
  • Expect it to surpass Microsoft for real soon, then it's Facebook's turn... Poor Microsoft - slowly fading to irrelevance.
  • Come for the post, stay for the comments!