PetroChina briefly became the world’s most valuable company at its 2007 Shanghai stock-market debut.
PetroChina’s A-shares began trading in Shanghai on November 5, 2007. The shares opened far above their offering price, giving the company a market capitalization reported at roughly $1 trillion and briefly placing it ahead of major global companies.
The valuation was extraordinary partly because the Shanghai market was experiencing a powerful speculative boom. PetroChina’s share price later fell sharply from its debut level, so the company did not retain the ranking for long.
This episode is often mentioned in discussions of the first company to reach a nominal trillion-dollar valuation. It differs from later milestones involving Apple and other companies whose market values crossed the threshold in more established trading conditions.