Apple Loses Crown of ‘World’s Most Valuable Company’ To This Oil Giant

Oil major Saudi Aramco has surpassed Apple on Wednesday in taking the crown of the world’s most valuable company. Reports mention that the market valuation of Saudi Aramco stood at over $2.43 trillion on the same day, on the other hand, Apple’s valuation was $2.37 trillion after it fell more than 5 percent during trading in the United States.

This eye-catching development is the result of continuous surging oil prices influenced by the high demand for the same. Also, the dropping shares of the tech sector indicate the concerns of investors related to company costs, increased interest rates, and fluctuations in the supply chain.

However, this is not the first time that Saudi Aramco has claimed the position of the world’s most valued company. Earlier, until July 2020 the Oil giant was in the mentioned position when Apple took over it and became the most valuable company. Apple has its peak on January 2 at over $3 trillion market valuation. Since then, it has recorded a fall of 20 percent. This is not it, as apart from that, the oil giant Saudi Aramco has recorded a stock growth of over 27 percent this year so far.

Significantly, the move is symbolic of the impact of geopolitical scenarios, supply chain issues, and rising interest rates on the global market as they seem to be making a noticeable shift due to the changes. Grapple with many more factors such as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, industries continue to report uncertainties.

Although, Apple has been reporting better profits than expected during the initial three months of this year. But, reportedly, it had anticipated that the Covid-19 infused lockdown in China and the uncertain situation of the supply chain will affect the June quarter results by $4 to $8 billion. 

Meanwhile, Apple continues to top among the major companies of the United States followed by Microsoft at the second position in the country which currently reports a market capitalization of over $1.95 trillion. Despite all the woes, the results seem satisfactory as the tech industry has been suffering various issues during the work from home (WFH) hybrid model of work.

On the other side, Saudi Aramco has been giving a tremendous performance as it reported a net profit of over 124 percent for the last year while the global economy has just begun to recover from the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the company, its profit rose to $110.0 billion in 2021 from $49.0 billion in the year 2020.