Amazon became the second big US company to hit $1 trillion in stock market value in the latest demonstration of the rising clout of American technology heavyweights.

The online retail giant breached the $1 trillion valuation near 1540 GMT when it's share price hit $2,050.50. The Amazon landmark comes about a month after Apple hit the $1 trillion level in early August.

Amazon retreated slightly after hitting the milestone, and near 1545, it was up 1.3 percent to $2,038.71.

It has revolutionised how people shop online and is the world's dominant internet retailer. In two decades the company expanded far beyond its bookseller beginnings, combining its world-spanning retail operation with less flashy but very profitable advertising and cloud computing businesses.

The company's blowout success has made its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, No 1 on Forbes' billionaires list this year.

The Seattle-based company has cemented customer loyalty through its Echo voice devices and the Prime membership programme that offers fast, free shipping as well as music and video streaming perks.

Amazon has also formed partnerships with many old-line retailers, selling the Kenmore washing machines traditionally found at Sears and opening stations inside Kohl's stores where people can bring returns and look at Amazon devices.

Wall Street has grown very enthusiastic about Amazon's other businesses. Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing services to companies and government, and Amazon's advertising division makes billions by selling ads to companies that want their products to show up when shoppers search on the site.

Those very profitable businesses have helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store.

Amazon saw its quarterly profit soar past $2 billion for the first time earlier this year as the online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses all kept growing.