PetroChina briefly became the first company to reach a $1 trillion market value when it debuted in Shanghai in 2007.
PetroChina’s shares surged on their first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on November 5, 2007. The rise gave the oil company a briefly calculated market capitalization above $1 trillion, although the valuation quickly fell as the stock price declined.
This event is often confused with the later, more sustained trillion-dollar milestones reached by companies such as Apple and Microsoft. PetroChina is the listed arm of China National Petroleum Corporation, one of China’s major state-owned energy groups. Market-capitalization records can be temporary because they depend on live prices and the exchange’s trading conditions.