Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable company – Spoiler Alert: Think Saudi Arabia

On August 2, 2018, Apple became the first company in human history to reach a $1 trillion market valuation. Shares of Apple jumped Thursday to hit the magic number of $207.05, making it the first company in the world to reach a market value of $1 trillion. In January of this year, Apple’s valuation reach $3 trillion in market cap, making it the world’s most valuable company. However, it didn’t take long before Apple lost this title.

On Wednesday, Oil giant Saudi Aramco surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable firm. The market value of Saudi Aramco was just under $2.43 trillion on Wednesday, according to FactSet, which converted its market cap to dollars. Apple, which fell more than 5% during trading in the U.S. on Wednesday, is now worth $2.37 trillion, according to a report from CNBC.

The sanctions on Russian oil have led to an increase in the price of oil as Russia further cuts its oil output leading to a surge in the prices of oil and other energy-related commodities. Aramco stock is up over 27% so far this year. In March, the oil giant reported that its full-year profit last year more than doubled due to soaring oil prices. Apple first passed Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company in 2020.

Three years ago, Apple became the first U.S. company in history to hit a market valuation of $1 trillion — an achievement that the tech giant reached on August 2, 2018. On August 19, 2021, Apple became the first publicly-traded company to hit a $2 trillion market valuation.

Founded on April 1, 1976, by Steven Paul Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Gerald Wayne, the Cupertino, California-based Apple is an American multinational technology corporation that designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, portable digital music players, and sells a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications.

Apple is the world’s largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung. Apple was named the most admired company in the United States in 2008 and in the world from 2008 to 2012 by Fortune magazine.