PetroChina briefly reached a $1 trillion market capitalization on its 2007 Shanghai debut.
PetroChina, the listed arm of China National Petroleum Corporation, began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on November 5, 2007. Its shares opened sharply above the initial offering price, giving the company a momentary valuation of roughly $1 trillion.
The milestone is often described as the first time a publicly traded company reached that valuation, although the figure was short-lived and depended on the opening share price. PetroChina’s market value fell substantially later that day as enthusiasm cooled.
This episode is easy to confuse with Apple’s better-known achievement: Apple became the first U.S. company to close above $1 trillion in 2018. PetroChina’s 2007 milestone occurred during a major Chinese stock-market boom and involved a dual-listed company with shares traded in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.