Saudi Aramco became the largest publicly traded company at its 2019 stock-market debut.
Saudi Aramco began trading on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019 after an initial public offering that valued the company at about $1.7 trillion. The offering made it the world's largest initial public offering by proceeds at that time and briefly gave the company the highest market capitalization among listed businesses.
Saudi Aramco is Saudi Arabia's national oil company and is formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company. It operates across oil and gas exploration, production, refining, chemicals, and related energy activities.
The IPO did not mean that the entire company was sold to public investors. The Saudi government retained the overwhelming majority of shares. This is a common source of confusion: an IPO can list a minority stake while establishing a market value for the whole company.