Apple made history earlier this week by becoming the first IT company to break the $3 trillion market valuation barrier when the iPhone manufacturer's stocks briefly hit $182.86.

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Only four countries in the world now have a higher GDP than Apple's market cap -- the United States, China, Japan, and Germany.

To put this gigantic figure into perspective, the GDP of India in the year 2020-2021 is just $2.7 trillion. The company's market cap also exceeds the GDP of the United Kingdom.

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After touching the trillion-dollar mark in August 2018, this milestone means the tech giant grew twofold in just three years -- in August 2020 the company surpassed the $2 trillion mark.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, both of whom dropped out of college to follow their entrepreneurial dreams, founded Apple Computers on April 1, 1976.

The Apple I personal computer was the company's first product, followed by the Apple II in June 1977. Wozniak developed both the computers by hand. The Apple II was the company's first personal computer targeted at regular Americans rather than business executives.

Apple went public in December 1980, when it rolled out an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock, selling 4.6 million shares at $22 each. It was the largest tech IPO of its time, creating more millionaires in a single day as compared to any other company before.

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Steve Jobs earned $217 million as the company's biggest shareholder, while Wozniak made $116 million after allocating a portion of his pre-IPO stock options to other employees of Apple.

Apple released the Lisa, a powerful desktop computer of its time with a graphical user interface targeted at specific business consumers, on January 19, 1983.

The Macintosh computer was launched in January 1984 with a futuristic advertisement.

The iPhone manufacturer is now ahead of giants like Microsoft with a $2.51 trillion value, Amazon with a $1.73 trillion value, Alphabet with a $1.92 trillion market cap and Saudi Arabia's Aramco with $1.9 trillion.

Apple is the globe's richest company in terms of cash. The company's cash reserves exceed the combined cash reserves of all Indian IT firms.

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(Edited by : Vijay Anand)