Eli Lilly $LLY ( ▲ 0.99% ) jumped into trillion-dollar territory on Friday, boosted by soaring demand for its blockbuster weight-loss drugs and landing itself among tech giants like Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 2.05% ) and Apple $AAPL ( ▲ 1.63% ) .
The company crossed the one trillion dollar mark shortly after the market opened and hovered around it through midday, sitting at roughly 1.002 trillion dollars in New York trading. The only other non-tech company to ever reach this level is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B ( ▲ 0.75% ) .
Lilly’s surge is powered by Mounjaro and Zepbound, its diabetes and weight-loss injections that have quickly become the best-selling drugs globally. The company has tightened its grip on the GLP-1 market and outpaced Novo Nordisk $NVO ( ▼ 5.59% ), the maker of Ozempic and its main competitor.
Lilly is joining the trillion dollar ranks at an unusual moment. Investors are growing uneasy about whether the AI boom they bet on is as durable as they once believed. Compared with the speculative mood surrounding tech, Lilly looks far more grounded. It sells real products, demand is enormous, and those products are generating billions in revenue right now.
The future is not guaranteed. Drug exclusivity will expire, and no one knows which company will produce the next GLP-1 superstar. Still, analysts view Lilly’s pipeline as competitive and capable of extending its dominance.
CEO David Ricks summed up the company’s mindset last month, saying, “Everybody would like to be in our position, but we are focused on defending it and mostly just executing the play we have.”