(June 27): Amazon.com Inc has reached a US$2 trillion (RM9.44 trillion) market valuation for the first time ever as an artificial intelligence (AI)-fuelled rally pushed the tech giant deeper into record territory.

Shares rose 3.9% on Wednesday to close at US$193.61, pushing the market value to more than US$2 trillion. The company is now a member of an elite club of a handful of peers that have surpassed the key market capitalisation. Alphabet Inc passed the US$2 trillion threshold in late April, while rallies have pushed market values of Nvidia Corp, Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc to more than US$3 trillion each.

Amazon shares have whipsawed since the company’s first-quarter earnings, when the cloud unit posted the strongest sales growth in a year, helping to power the stock back above the all-time high set in April. The stock rallied in June, recovering losses from the end of May to gain 27% so far this year.

Shares in the megacap technology company have gotten a lift over the past year as the company cut costs and restructured its business to better take advantage of the AI frenzy. In addition, its key Amazon Web Services business has shown signs of re-accelerating growth, a major point of optimism for investors.

“Part of the good stock performance over the last six to nine months for Amazon has been related to the fact that it was oversold” at the end of 2022, said Dan Romanoff, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Service.

Uploaded by Surin Murugiah