The year 2000 was a special year for Microsoft: the dot-com bubble was at its peak and the company was riding the high wave. This was also when the company, for the first time ever, hit a huge milestone- the market cap of $600 billion. The bubble soon burst and crashed the market and took with it, some behemoths. Microsoft, which was one of the most important tech forces at the time, also took a hard hit.

Now, after 17 long years, the Redmond company has regained the market capitalization of $600 billion. On Thursday, its shares grew 0.4% to $77.91, setting a new all-time high. The corporation had crossed the $500 billion threshold back in January this year. This growth can be attributed to its unprecedented rise in the cloud computing sector, where the company is a dominant force. It now joins its fellow S&P 500 tech giants - Apple (about $800 billion) and Google's parent company Alphabet (about $690 billion). The Cupertino company is predicted to cross the coveted trillion dollar market cap before any other corporation. Other notable companies with market value of over $500 billion are Facebook and Amazon.

Interestingly, the company took almost eight years to reach the milestone from $150 billion. In comparison, it took the corporation just 800 trading days to increase its market capitalization from $100 billion to $600 billion back in the year 2000. Microsoft's pivot to "safer" technologies of late may have led to this increase. The company is receding its footprint in the "uncertain" consumer markets and focusing on the business sector.

Source: Wall Street Journal