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It didn't take long for Apple to have some company.

Amazon on Tuesday became only the second publicly traded U.S. company to reach a market value of $1 trillion, hitting the mark almost exactly a month after Apple became the first.

Amazon has emerged as one of the most dominant companies in the world, having become the leading ecommerce retailer as well as one of the leading cloud computing providers. The company has also become something of a corporate boogeyman, able to send shares in other companies spiraling if Amazon hints at entering their industries.

Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos, who remains the company's CEO. It initially focused on selling books, but expanded into other goods and eventually began to offer services such as Amazon Prime, a yearly membership that offers free shipping on many items as well as music and video services.

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The company lost money for years as Bezos focused on building up a customer base and expanding the company's delivery capabilities. But in recent years, its stock price climbed sharply as the company has begun to turn a profit. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, Amazon announced more than double the profits that Wall Street analysts had expected.