Next Level: Netflix Angles for Membership in $1 Trillion Club

Winning the streaming wars is not enough. Now, Netflix wants to be in the big leagues with names like Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia.

With Hollywood conquered, Netflix has a new goal: reaching a $1 trillion market cap by 2030, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In other words: It wants to leave its streaming war co-combatants in the dust.

Swimming Upstream

Joining the trillion-dollar club by the turn of the decade is a lofty goal — it’d require more than doubling a current market cap of about $417 billion — but, according to a source who spoke with the WSJ, the company sees something of a road map based around two hand-in-hand goals: Growing to about 410 million subscribers, up from about 300 million at the end of last year, and doubling annual revenue from last year’s $39 billion mark.

Growing the subscriber base means continuing an aggressive push into international markets, where the company already has a head start over its competitors. Last year, 51% of the company’s content budget went to non-US productions, according to Ampere Analysis data, and sources told the WSJ that Netflix is aggressively pushing into markets with high broadband penetration, such as Brazil and India. Growing the subscriber base, of course, means growing its revenue, too — and the company says it should achieve critical scale in its ad-supported subscriber base this year. According to industry analysts at MoffetNathanson, doing so “should unlock a new runway of growth in the business for years to come.” The company is aiming for $9 billion in annual ad revenue by 2030, sources told the WSJ.

In the process, Netflix could balloon its already sizeable streaming lead: 

• Netflix remains the leader by far in streaming profitability, with net income last year of $8.7 billion. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery both finally made money in streaming in 2024, and both hope to reach $1 billion in streaming profits this year; Paramount and Comcast, meanwhile, continued to lose money in streaming last year.
• In the first quarter of 2025, Netflix and Amazon were neck-and-neck in streaming market share, both holding about 20%, according to industry analysis firm JustWatch, while no other service held more than 13% market share. Still, Netflix says it captures only around 10% of total television screen time in all of its markets, meaning it sees room to grow.

Recession and Chill: Netflix has also proven resilient amid this year’s market meltdown, with its share price up around 10% year-to-date, defying the S&P 500’s 8% stumble. Executives see the company as somewhat recession-proof since cash-strapped consumers will be more likely to stay at home and watch TV. A word to the wise: Don’t expect to find some fun escapism in Netflix’s recent (harrowing) releases like Adolescence and Zero Day.