Image: MicrosoftMicrosoft has become the latest company to reach a valuation of over $1 trillion after better-than-expected results pushed its share price up.
It is the third US tech giant to hit the milestone after Apple and Amazon. Its market valuation hit the $1tn mark during trading briefly on Thursday before falling back slightly. It marks a year of strong growth in Microsoft's share price, which has increased by a third.
The company reported a 19% rise in profits for its fourth quarter to $8.8 billion, while revenues were up 14% to $30.6bn.
Despite hitting the $1tn mark, Microsoft has previously played down its significance. Chief marketing officer, Chris Capossela, said at an event last year: "This is a metric that nobody on the senior leadership team is tracking.
"Nobody is sitting around high-fiving when the stock hits some new high."
The growth in revenues, profits and share price comes as a result of the company's strategy to shift reliance on its Windows operating system to cloud technologies.
