PetroChina briefly became the world’s first trillion-dollar company by market capitalization in 2007.
PetroChina’s shares surged on their first day of trading in Shanghai in November 2007. The company’s valuation briefly rose above US$1 trillion, making it the first publicly traded company reported to reach that level. The figure was based on the company’s total shares, including shares not freely traded on the exchange.
The milestone was short-lived: PetroChina’s share price later fell sharply, and the company did not remain near that valuation. This episode is often omitted from simplified accounts that call Apple the first trillion-dollar company. Apple was the first US company and the first non-oil company to reach US$1 trillion in 2018, while PetroChina’s earlier record came from the energy sector during a period of strong investor enthusiasm.