Jeff Bezos
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. (GeekWire File Photo)

Amazon’s market value surged to more than $702 billion on Wednesday, making the Seattle-based company the third-largest U.S. public company by that measure — surpassing its regional neighbor Microsoft for the first time.

The milestone underscores Amazon rise as a tech giant, expanding well beyond its core e-commerce business into cloud computing, artificial intelligence, consumer devices, entertainment, package delivery and many other areas. Amazon is now behind only Google ($745 billion) and Apple ($849 billion) in market value.

Amazon’s shares rose more than 2.5 percent on Friday to close at $1,451.05. Its shares are up more than 9 percent over the past month, boosted in part by a strong earnings report for the fourth quarter.

The company reached the milestone despite Microsoft shares rising 1.5 percent on the day to $90.81. Microsoft’s market value is hovering right around $700 billion.

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