Chinese. No, wait, American.

Actually, it’s a global company, with tech from the United States, and manufacturing in several countries, but mainly China.

You would be forgiven for surmising that Apple Inc would be the first company to cross the US$ 1 trillion threshold. A couple of years ago, Apple came close, with a market capitalization of US$ 947 billion, but has subsequently seen its star losing lustre.

A more recent entry into the Top Five, Facebook Inc has been battling it out with Microsoft Corp and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc, which only proves that tech and web companies have firmly established their superiority, in the world’s most valuable corporations. These three are constantly swapping places, but unable to catch Apple at this stage.

Energy and financial conglomerates like Exxon Mobil and Berkshire Hathaway had their day in the spotlight, valiantly clinging to tenth and eleventh spot up until 2020, but now have declined below the rising tech stars.

No, the dark horse that has beaten all others to the title of the world’s first trillion-dollar business first started out as an online retailer, but has since morphed into the provider of a myriad of tech-enabled consumer and business services and products, from supply chain logistics to smart home devices, cloud-based cognitive computing and more.

It’s the master of the 4th Industrial Revolution, harnessing AI, 3D printing, robotics and drones – in fact anything that would give them the edge in this exponentially accelerating world. I’m talking about Amazon.TCH, the merger of Amazon.Com and Tencent Holdings, a truly global, and globally relevant company. Don’t believe me? Just ask Alexa.

ANALYSIS >> SYNTHESIS: How this scenario came to be

“Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking.”