PetroChina briefly became the world’s first company with a $1 trillion market capitalization in November 2007.
The milestone followed PetroChina’s listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, where enthusiastic buying pushed its share price sharply higher on its first trading day. Its valuation soon fell, so the company did not remain above $1 trillion for long.
PetroChina is the publicly traded arm of China National Petroleum Corporation, one of China’s major state-owned energy groups. Its business includes oil and gas exploration, production, refining, and distribution.
This episode is often confused with Apple’s 2018 milestone. Apple was the first U.S. company to sustain a market capitalization above $1 trillion, while PetroChina reached that figure earlier but only briefly.