TOP 100 COMPANIES
Apple
Year Founded : 1976 Industry : Tech
Apple is the largest IT firm by revenue ( US $ 274.5bn in 2020 ) and has previously been the world ' s most valuable company .
It was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs , Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to develop and sell Wozniak ' s Apple I personal computer . It went public in 1980 , and enjoyed huge success .
Wozniak left in 1985 while Jobs was forced out soon after . Without the inspirational - if tyrannical - Jobs to lead it , Apple drifted , and became a bitpart player in the tech market .
Jobs rejoined in 1997 , and with the launch of its translucent iMac and and iPod MP3 player , the company was reborn .
In 2001 , it opened a retail chain , the Apple Stores , and with its iPhone has gone on to dominate the smartphone market .
Jobs died in 2011 from pancreatic cancer , and was succeeded as CEO by Tim Cook , who had formerly been in charge of the company ’ s Supply Chain .
In August 2018 , Apple became the first publicly traded US company to be valued at over US $ 1 trillion . Two years later , it was valued at US $ 2 trillion .
In June 2020 , Apple announced it will move the Mac away from Intel processors to ones developed in-house , to allow for performance increases . supplychaindigital . com 31