14 DAY TRIAL // Both Apple and Microsoft are now worth $1 trillion each after posting better than anticipated results in the latest quarter, but neither Tim Cook nor Satya Nadella think this is reason to celebrate.
Microsoft’s CEO explains in an interview with Bloomberg that he believes the $1 trillion market cap “is not meaningful” and bragging about such a moment is, in fact, “the beginning of the end.”
“I would be disgusted if somebody ever celebrated our market cap,” he said, adding that Microsoft is trying to embrace a different culture that leaves the past behind and is focused specifically on the future.
“At Microsoft we have this very bad habit of not being able to push ourselves because we just feel very self-satisfied with the success we’ve had,” Nadella continued. “We’re learning how not to look at the past.”
Cook: Forget about the market cap
Apple CEO Tim Cook supported the same idea back in 2018 when Apple reached $1 trillion market cap for the first time, telling employees that this “isn’t the most important measure of our success.”
Like Nadella, Cook explained that Apple should continue investing in innovation and new technologies and ignore the market valuation of the company.
“It's you, our team, that makes Apple great and our success is due to your hard work, dedication and passion. I am deeply humbled by what you do, and it's the privilege of a lifetime to work alongside you. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the late hours and extra trips, all the times you refuse to settle for anything less than excellence in our work together,” Tim Cook said.
Amazon is now the third company that’s expected to break the $1 trillion market cap threshold, followed at some point in the future by Google’s parent firm Alphabet.