Billion-dollar companies have been part of the U.S. economy for more than a century. Trillion-dollar companies, however, are a more recent development. Although Apple (AAPL +1.25%) is often considered to be the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization, it's neither the first nor the last to reach a four-comma valuation. Read on to learn more about the trillion-dollar club's history, as well as its past, present, and potential future members.
What is the trillion-dollar club?
The trillion-dollar club doesn't have a fixed, or even easily identifiable membership list. In general, it consists of publicly traded companies that have a market capitalization of $1 trillion or more.
But market caps aren't exactly etched in stone. PetroChina (NYSE:PTR), for example, launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 2007 and became the first modern-day member of the trillion-dollar club in 2007. The 2007-09 financial crisis and an oil price war, however, meant the company was swiftly tossed out of the club; its market value fell to less than $260 billion by the end of 2008.
There's also the question of inflation. For example, could the Dutch East India Company have been considered a member of the club? At its peak value in 1637, it was considered to be worth $7.9 trillion in today's dollars. The Mississippi Company, which held French trading rights in North America and the West Indies, was thought to be worth $6.5 trillion in today's dollars in 1720. Even Standard Oil Co. -- the forerunner of ExxonMobil (XOM -0.51%), Chevron (CVX -0.60%), BP (BP -1.31%), and Marathon Petroleum (MPC +0.13%) – was thought to have a value that topped $1 trillion in 1901.
