PetroChina was the first company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization during its 2007 IPO.
PetroChina’s shares surged on their first trading day in Shanghai in November 2007, briefly giving the company a market capitalization above $1 trillion. The event made PetroChina the first publicly traded company reported to reach that level, although its valuation later fell sharply.
The milestone is often confused with Apple’s 2018 achievement. Apple is widely described as the first U.S. company to reach $1 trillion and the first to sustain that valuation in a modern global-market context. PetroChina’s listing involved a limited portion of the company’s shares, and the extreme first-day price jump showed how market enthusiasm can produce a very high implied valuation even when the stock does not remain at that level.