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Microsoft joins $1 trillion market cap club

The tech giant is now the most valuable company in the US.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
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Microsoft has joined an exclusive club whose only membership requirement is a market capitalization value of $1 trillion or more, and in the process it's nabbed the crown for most-valuable company.

The software giant broke the barrier Wednesday in after-hours trading when shares jumped more than 4% on better-than-expected earnings and revenue. For the third quarter, Microsoft posted revenues of $30.6 billion and net income of $8.8 billion on strong performance from the company's Windows, Xbox/gaming, search advertising and Surface businesses.

The boost makes Microsoft the third US company to hit that market-cap mark, as well as the most valuable US company, based on the trading price of all of a company's shares added together. Apple became the first US company to hit the mark, in August, but its current market cap is $976 billion. Amazon briefly joined Apple a month later but now has a value of $935 billion.

Microsoft declined to comment.