August 9, 2011: Apple overtakes oil large ExxonMobil to turn out to be the world’s most precious publicly traded firm.
The milestone caps an astonishing turnaround for Cupertino. Simply 15 years earlier, it regarded prefer it was nearly “sport over” for Apple.
Apple: The world’s most precious firm
Similar to it’s exhausting to convey how totally different it felt being an Apple fan within the Nineties in comparison with immediately, Apple’s meteoric 2000s rise was one thing you actually wanted to be round to see.
CEO Steve Jobs’ near-flawless collection of selections and new merchandise was superb to witness. First got here the iMac G3 within the late Nineties, adopted by the widescreen iMac G4 a couple of years later, the iPod, the Apple Retailer, the iPhone, iTunes, the iPad and a lot extra.
As this outstanding collection of hits ran on, Apple started to creep up within the inventory market rankings. In January 2006, it handed Dell, the corporate whose founder as soon as stated he’d shut down Apple and refund its shareholders.
Apple valuation passes Microsoft, then ExxonMobil
In Might 2010, Apple overtook Microsoft in market capitalization, surpassing the tech large that dominated the earlier decade.
By August 2011, Apple had been closing in on oil and gasoline large ExxonMobil for a while. Then Apple reported record-breaking earnings for the earlier quarter. With year-on-year income up 90%, the corporate reported the sale of 20.34 million iPhones, greater than twice the quantity offered in the identical quarter a yr earlier. It additionally offered 9.25 million iPads, triple the quantity offered through the pill’s 2010 debut quarter.
Apple’s income, in the meantime, surged 124%. On the identical time, ExxonMobil underperformed, on account of tanking oil costs because of monetary turmoil.
The 2 occasions conspired to briefly push Apple into the lead, with the corporate’s market worth hitting $337 billion, in comparison with ExxonMobil’s $334 billion.
Apple valuation: Up and up
Right now, Apple maintains a wholesome lead over Exxon Mobil. On this present day in 2025, Exxon’s market cap stood at $455 billion. Apple, in the meantime, rides excessive at greater than $3.4 trillion. For Cupertino, it’s been a gentle upward trajectory (with the anticipated pullbacks alongside the best way).
Apple handed a serious milestone in 2018 by changing into the primary public U.S. firm valued at a huge $1 trillion. Previous to this, it turned the primary such firm to hit $700 billion, $800 billion and $900 billion market caps.
In early 2022, Apple surged previous the $3 trillion mark, earlier than receding amid a broader pullback amongst tech shares. The corporate surged previous the $3 trillion mark once more in June 2023, and it has hovered round that mark for the previous two years. Right now, Apple is close to the highest of the heap, although it’s been surpassed by Nvidia and Microsoft within the midst of the AI growth.
Don’t you would like you’d invested in AAPL again in 1996? I certain do!
