Apple inches towards being the first $1-trillion company, helped by Buffett and earnings

Eli Blumenthal | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Why Warren Buffett finally bit on Apple Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway just bought 75 million more shares of the iPhone maker.

What's cooler than being a multibillion-dollar company? Being a trillion-dollar one.

Apple is once again closing in on becoming the first company to have a market cap of $1 trillion.

Apple stock (AAPL) rose 1% Monday, raising its market cap to roughly $908 billion.

Monday's run continues a stretch of good news for Apple. Last week the company posted solid earnings that seemed to quell investor fears that iPhone demand was slowing.

(The iPhone is the largest driver of Apple's business. The company sold 52.2 million iPhones last quarter, accounting for $38 billion of the company's $61.14 billion in revenue.)

Late last week, the company received yet another boost when Warren Buffett told CNBC ahead of his annual Berkshire Hathaway retreat that his company had purchased an additional 75 million shares of Apple in the first quarter, raising its total stake to $44 billion.

More Money: Buffett sticks by embattled Wells Fargo, balks at insuring cyber risks

The gap between Apple and other U.S. companies in terms of market cap is equally impressive, with the iPhone-maker currently worth over $120 billion more than its nearest tech rivals Amazon ($773B), Microsoft ($732B) and Alphabet ($719B), which are the second, third and fourth in market cap valuations, respectively.

No U.S. company has ever crossed the vaunted trillion-dollar threshold, with Apple coming closest, hovering at about a $900 billion valuation in recent months. In March, its shares briefly crossed the $925 billion mark, but recent market volatility and concerns over the company's iPhone business sent Apple's stock lower.

More Money: How Facebook fired workers who blocked 'fake news' — 'After the Fact' book excerpt

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal