Question: What was the first U.S. company to reach $1 billion in market value?
Answer: U.S. Steel reached a market value of $1.4 billion when it went public in 1901. Charles Schwab was company president and the deal was financed by J.P. Morgan. That year, the nation’s gross domestic products was only about $20 billion, so U.S. Steel alone was worth roughly 7% of America’s total annual output.
