Saudi Aramco briefly became the first public company valued at more than $2 trillion in December 2019.
The Saudi Arabian oil company reached the milestone shortly after its shares began trading on the Saudi Stock Exchange, known as Tadawul. Its initial public offering was one of the most closely watched listings in financial history because of Aramco's enormous oil reserves, production scale, and importance to Saudi Arabia's economy.
The $2 trillion valuation was based on the company's share price and the total number of shares outstanding. The market value later moved below that level, showing why market-cap rankings are snapshots rather than permanent labels. Apple had previously become the first company to reach $2 trillion in 2020, after Aramco's 2019 listing milestone.
Saudi Aramco is majority owned by the Saudi Arabian government. Its public listing was part of Saudi Vision 2030, a national program intended to diversify the kingdom's economy beyond oil.