Last month, Apple Inc.’s market capitalization zoomed above the $500 billion mark. The company’s stock reached the 52-week high at $548.21 a share, just two bucks shy of $550 a share and this is the immediate resistance level. With yesterday’s closing of $533.16 a share, this monster has market capitalization of $497.10 billion. Now everybody is talking about whether this company can become the world’s first trillion-dollar company.

Breaching the $500 billion dollar mark wasn’t that of a challenge actually considering quite a number of companies had done that before. Microsoft reached that milestone  in December 1999 when it scored $615 billion, General Electric ($594 billion) in August 2000, Cisco Systems ($557 billion) in March 2000, ExxonMobil ($527 billion) in October 2007 and Intel ($502 billion) in August 2000. But none has cross the $1 trillion hurdle and it would an amazing sight to see Apple or any company as a matter of fact to reach it.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) is not only known for its $500 billion market capitalization, zero debt, $127 billion annual sales, 66% annual sales growth, 85% annual income growth and a whopping 25% net profit margin but also its mind-boggling cash of $97 billion. But for the time being, let’s talk about this gigantic $500 billion figure. Can you possibly think of how huge is this most valuable public company in the world?

1) Apple is Bigger than these Countries

– Apple’s total market value is so huge that it only make sense to compare it with some countries’ GDP.

– Just slightly less than Switzerland’s GDP of $528 billion, Apple’s is more valuable than Poland (GDP – $470 billion), Saudi Arabia (GDP – $434 billion), Belgium (GDP – 469 billion) and Sweden (GDP – 459 billion)

2) Apple is Bigger than these U.S. Cities

– Apple’s market capitalization is almost the size of Chicago’s GMP (gross metropolitan product)

– Using GMP as yardstick, Apple’s total value actually worth twice the size of Miami’s annual production ($257 billion) and San Francisco ($325 billion).

3) These Currencies Can’t Buy Apple

– If you take all the $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 U.S. dollars notes currently in circulation, these would add up to a mere $252.8 billion, far less than Apple’s total value of $500 billion.

– So, you can’t but Apple even if you have all the mentioned notes in your possession.

4) Apple’s Cash Compares to California State

– While California saw revenues to its general fund reached approximately $93.49 billion for its fiscal year 2010-11, Apple’s cash of $97 billion is more than the state’s revenues

– Besides, Apple’s $97 billion can cover California state’s estimated $9.2 billion budget deficit more than 10 times.

5) Purchasing Apple with Saudi Arabia Oil Revenue

– World’s largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, produces about 10.52 million barrels of oil daily. Based on this 2010’s output and crude oil pricing of $107 a barrel, the oil kingdom would need 87 days of full production to generate the same amount of cash that Apple has.

– If for some reasons, Saudi Arabia wish to purchase Apple, the country needs about 15 months to generate the $500 billion from the oil revenue for the purpose.

6) World’s Biggest Gold Reserves

– If you still believe United State’s Fort Knox is not already empty, the value of the gold reserve is insufficient to buy over Apple. Fort Knox’s 8,956.6 tons of gold was worth about $459 billion only

– In fact, there’s not a single country in the top 10 world’s biggest gold reserves that could buy 100% stake in Apple.

7) Apple Can Pay 1.4 Million Americans Salaries

– Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average annual income for individuals in the United States during 2010 was $68,259. With Apple’s $97.6 billion, they could pay the salaries of about 1.43 million U.S. workers for an entire year, provided Apple was stupid enough to do so.

8 ) Apple Can Solve Greek Debt Crisis

– Thanks to the late-2000s financial crisis and European sovereign debt crisis, Greek economy collapsed and its debt is estimated at about €350 billion or $462 billion.

– If Apple is generous enough, it could sell off its entire stake to Saudi Arabia in order to pay off Greek debt (*grin*).

– On the other hand, Apple’s cash reserve of $97 billion is enough to pay off the total public debt of 8 countries within European Union namely Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Estonia and Malta

9) Mahathir’s RM100 Billion Losses

– It’s an open secret about allegation losses of RM100 billion ($30 billion) during former Malaysia prime minister Mahathir’s 22-year-rule, either through corruptions or smart plundering.

– Apple’s total value of $500 billion would enable Mahathir to do the same plundering again for over 16 times and still have lots of loose change (*grin*).

10) Other Infamous projects

– If you think the infamous Shahrizat’s Cowgate RM250 million ($83 million) scandal is a huge criminal breach of trust, Apple’s cash of $97 billion will allow the Minister’s family to repeat the same “business transaction” for 1,168 times with some loose change. And Apple’s total value of $500 billion would allow you to start the same Cowgate project again for 6,024 times (*gulp*).

– PKFZ RM12 billion ($4 billion) scandal can be repeated 24 times (Apple’s $97 billion cash reserve) and 125 times (Apple’s $500 billion total valuation) respectively.

– Apple’s total value of $500 billion can be used to build 3,750,009 condos or houses worth RM400,000 ($133,333) each thus immediately solve escalating property prices problem that is haunting PM Najib in Malaysia.

– And of course, Apple’s $500 billion in market capitalization would allow PM Najib to purchase a whopping 500 French-built Sorpene submarines – making Malaysia the biggest naval force in the world in terms of number of submarines, provided they could dive in the first place (*grin*).

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• U.S. Debt – How Much Does Each American Owe?
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• Debts & Deficits – 21 Currencies That Have Gone Bust

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March 6th, 2012 by financetwitter

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