Apple has become the worlds first public company to be worth $1 trillion (£767bn), with the firms Q3 results boosting stock prices high thanks to better than expected results.

The firm beats rivals like Amazon, Microsoft and Google to the milestone, and can trace its meteoric rise back to the release of the first iPhone back in 2007. In 2006, the company had sales of less than $20bn, and posted profits of almost $2bn. Last year, sales hit $229bn, with profits of $48.4bn. Since then, Apple shares have increased by 1,100 per cent, and have grown by almost a third in just the past year.

Since the firm first listed on the stock exchange in 1980, it has seen its value increase by 50,000 per cent, dwarfing the 2,000 per cent increase for the S&P 500 Index over the same period.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, called the valuation a “significant milestone” that gave the company “much to be proud of”, but said also that the market capitalisation was “not the most important measure” of the companys success. In a memo to employees, Cook said that “financial returns are simply the result of Apples innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.

“Steve (Jobs) founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges – and that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”