You know what is cooler than being worth $1 billion? Being worth $1 trillion.
With Apple crossing a historic milestone to become the first U.S. company in history to be worth $1 trillion, we decided to take a look at some of the most outlandish things Apple could buy with all of that money to try and put the latest valuation into some context. From iPhones to Disney, unsurprisingly the answer is quite a lot.
More than 1 billion iPhone Xs
There are roughly 7.5 billion people in the world, so what better way to say thank you than to buy 1 billion of them new iPhone Xs. While not enough to give everyone in China or India a new phone, at a starting price of $999.99 for the 64GB model Apple can still gift nearly 13 percent of the world's population with its latest iPhone (or latest model for now).
Apple would rank No. 17 if it was the GDP of a country
Apple's $1 trillion market cap is larger than the gross domestic product of all but 16 countries based on data from the International Monetary Fund. Slotting in at the 17th spot behind Indonesia ($1.07 trillion), Apple would be larger than the GDPs of the Netherlands, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Argentina.
Its valuation is also more than the GDPs of Ireland, Israel and Greece – combined.
It is triple the size of Samsung
Apple's biggest smartphone rival has been Samsung and its Galaxy S and Note line of smartphones. While Apple doesn't have enough money to buy Android-maker Google, the company could purchase Samsung, which is worth $326.44 trillion South Korean Won, or about $289.4 billion in U.S. currency.
Apple not only would benefit from owning the Samsung maker, but also get the South Korean giant's impressive manufacturing capabilities, which Apple already uses to make some parts for its own products.
Buy Disney, Netflix and AT&T
Apple has been making moves to build out its streaming content portfolio, but why not take a shortcut and pick up three of the biggest content makers in the world? With $1 trillion, Apple can go out and buy The Walt Disney Co. (market cap of $168.16 billion), Netflix ($146.94) and AT&T, which recently purchased HBO-owner Time Warner($234.48), and still have roughly $450 billion left over.
Who wouldn't subscribe to a streaming service that has "The Avengers," "Star Wars," "Stranger Things" and "Game of Thrones"?
All the teams on the Forbes top 50 most valuable list
Why stop at media? With a trillion dollars Apple can amass the greatest fantasy sports roster every by acquiring every team on Forbes' top 50 most valuable sports teams list. This includes 29 NFL teams led by the Dallas Cowboys ($4.8 billion); international soccer powerhouses Manchester United ($4.123 billion), Real Madrid ($4.09 billion) and Barcelona ($4.064 billion); as well as the most valuable MLB and NBA teams: the New York Yankees ($4 billion) and New York Knicks ($3.6 billion).
The total for the lot: $137 billion.
Get into cars with Tesla ... and Ford
There have been rumors for years of Apple working on a car, but as with streaming video, why not just buy your way into the market? For Apple, it wouldn't even cost that much. Tesla, a company that gets equated to Apple both for its products and its passionate legion of followers, is worth $55.63 billion, a relative bargain.
Want to add more manufacturing muscle? Apple can also kick the tires on Ford, which at a market cap of $39.4 billion would give Apple two major automakers for less than $100 billion.
Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal
