Microsoft has followed Apple as the second U.S public company to reach a $2 trillion market value.

The tipping point was a 1.2 per cent rise in the company’s share price yesterday, although it was brief; at closing it was slightly short of the magic two trillion mark, trading at $265.51.

The company’s pivot into cloud-computing software is responsible for the change in fortunes, with Microsoft shares gaining 19 per cent so far this year. It’s first quarter results, with sales of $41.7 billion, marked the ninth straight quarter it topped analysts’ estimates.

“Microsoft checks all the boxes: it is in the markets that investors favour, it offers strong and sustainable growth, and it remains very well positioned to capitalise on the long-term secular trends we see in technology,” Logan Purk, an analyst at Edward Jones, told Bloomberg.