For the last several years, a debate has waged on Wall Street about which U.S. company would be the first to hit $1 trillion in market value - Apple or Google. However, after the latest round of earnings, it may be neither but Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) that takes the prize.

Amazon's market cap ballooned to $707 billion today after the company posted mind-boggling revenue growth of 38% in the fourth quarter and beat on nearly every metric. Meanwhile, Apple's market cap is down to $829 billion and Google's is down to $773 billion following their quarterly results.

While Amazon still has a lower value, the pace of its stock gains suggests it might surpass both in short order. Shares of Amazon are up 73% over the last year and 25% year-to-date, versus 27%/(3.7%) and 37%/6% for Apple and Google, respectively.

Today, analysts at Monness, Crespi, Hardt placed a $2,000 price target on Amazon - which would suggest a market cap just shy of the $1 trillion mark.

In the summer, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill talked about Amazon at $1 trillion using the thesis that AWS alone could be worth $330 billion. There was one caveat to Thill's thesis, however, that is worth mentioning - he said he expected that to happen over the next five years.

In the latest quarter, Amazon beat on every metric with notable AWS performance and an operating margin beat. Operating income of $2.1 billion was well ahead of the consensus of $1.5 billion. North America retail of $37.3 billion was $1.1 billion above views and operating margin of 4.5% beat the 3% consensus. AWS sales surged 45% year-over-year, versus 42% growth last quarter and operating margins of 26.5% increased 94 basis points sequentially.

Amazon continues to invest in growth, and initiatives internationally in India and China, growth with Prime and Alexa, not to mention AWS strength, may be enough to put it on top in the race to $1 trillion.

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