Could Microsoft Be the First $1 Trillion Company?

If you had wondered out loud five years ago whether Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) could be the first public company to reach a $1 trillion valuation, you would have been laughed out of the room. The software giant was worth less than $250 billion back then, hobbled by the lackluster performance of Windows 8, its losing battle in the smartphone market, and fears that cloud computing would render its lucrative software business obsolete.

Fast-forward to today, and you wouldn't be so crazy to think that Microsoft could power ahead of the competition to a 12-figure valuation. CEO Satya Nadella, who took over in 2014, made cloud computing a priority. He moved quickly to grow the Azure cloud platform and shift to subscription software. The result has been an explosion in the stock price. Microsoft is now valued at around $650 billion.

Microsoft stock would need to gain another 50% or so to reach the trillion-dollar mark. That's a big move, but it's not unthinkable.

Source: Fool.com