PetroChina was the first company to surpass a $1 trillion market capitalization during intraday trading in 2007.
PetroChina reached the milestone on November 5, 2007, the day its Shanghai-listed shares began trading after its initial public offering. The company’s valuation briefly exceeded $1 trillion before its share price fell back, making the achievement a short-lived intraday event rather than a sustained closing valuation.
PetroChina is the publicly traded arm of China National Petroleum Corporation and is involved in oil and natural-gas exploration, production, refining, transportation, and sales. Its debut occurred during a period of intense enthusiasm for Chinese equities.
This fact is often confused with Apple’s later achievement. Apple became the first U.S. company to close above $1 trillion in 2018, while PetroChina’s earlier milestone was based on a brief trading price and included the estimated value of all its shares.