World's 10 Most Valuable Companies

U.S. technology giant Apple has become the most valuable public company in history with its market value hitting $623 billion in intraday trading eclipsing Microsoft’s record of $618.9 billion.

Apple

Apple’s market value on topped the record set by Microsoft Dec 30, 1999, at the height of dotcom bubble, as its stock rose to new high of $664.74 per share, CNNMoney reported citing S&P's senior index analyst Howard Silverblatt. The anticipated September launch of the new iPhone, coupled with rumours of a smaller iPad and a more feature-rich Apple TV have lifted the stock in recent weeks.

It is a stunning achievement for a company that was a struggling also-ran when Microsoft was setting records in the late 1990s, CNNMoney said, noting Apple was valued at less than $10 billion as recently as 2004, and at $100 billion just three years ago. Since 2007, however, Apple has been an unstoppable force.

Its iPhone business alone now brings in more money than Microsoft and the iPad has become a multi-billion dollar product for Apple. Apple is on pace to be the world's largest technology company in terms of sales by the end of the year, and is among the most profitable companies in the world, CNNMoney said. In the last three months of 2011, Apple made $13 billion — second only to ExxonMobil’s record-setting $14.8 billion quarter from the fall of 2008. Its growth continues unabated with Apple stock soaring 64 percent in 2012.

ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil is the largest of the six oilsuper majors with daily production of 3.921 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent). In 2008, this was approximately 3 percent of world production, which is less than several of the largest state-owned petroleum companies. When ranked by oil and gas reserves it is 14th in the world with less than 1 percent of the total. It is one of the largest publicly traded companies by market capitalization in the world and is the largest company in the world by revenue. The company is ranked 1 globally in Forbes Global 2000 list in 2012. Exxon Mobil's reserves were 72 billion oil-equivalent barrels at the end of 2007 and, at then (2007) rates of production are expected to last over 14 years.

PetroChina

PetroChina is the most profitable company in Asia, but this success may be the result of corporate management, but can also be attributed to the near duopoly on the wholesale and retail business of oil products it shares with Sinopec in China. It is China's biggest oil producer. Traded in Hong Kong and New York, the mainland enterprise announced its plans to issue stock in Shanghai in November 2007 and subsequently entered trading on the Shanghai index.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is the largest bank in the world by profit and market capitalization. It is one of China's 'Big Four' state-owned commercial banks (the other three being the Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank). It was founded as a limited company on January 1, 1984. As of March 2010, it had assets of RMB 12.55 trillion ($1.9 trillion), with over 18,000 outlets including 106 overseas branches and agents globally.  In 2011, it ranked number 7 on Forbes Global 2000 list of world’s biggest public companies^.

Nestle

Nestle is a Swiss multinational nutritional and health-related consumer goods company headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It is the largest food company in the world measured by revenues.  In 2011, Nestlé was listed No. 1 in the Fortune Global 500 as the world's most profitable corporation. With a market capitalization of $ 200 billion, Nestlé ranked No. 13 in the FT Global 2011. Nestle was formed in 1905 by the merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactee Henri Nestle, founded in 1867 by Henri Nestle. The company grew significantly during the First World War and again following the Second World War, expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products.

Microsoft

Microsoft is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues.  It is also one of the world's most valuable companies. Microsoft was established to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.

IBM

IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance (1934), survivor benefits (1935) and paid vacations (1937). The Human Rights Campaign has consistently rated IBM 100 percent on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003. In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the 2 largest U.S. firms in terms of number of employees (433,362), the 4 largest in terms of market capitalization, the 9 most profitable, and the 19 largest firms in terms of revenue. Globally, the company was ranked the 31 largest in terms of revenue by Forbes for 2011. Other rankings for 2011/2012 include 1 company for leaders (Fortune), 1 green company worldwide (Newsweek), 2 best global brand (Interbrand), 2 most respected company (Barron's), 5 most admired company (Fortune), and 18 most innovative company (Fast Company).

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell commonly known as Shell is a Dutch–British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power. It has operations in over 90 countries, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide. Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses. Shell has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. As of 6 July 2012, it was the largest company on the FTSE, with a market capitalisation of 140.9 billion pounds. It has secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange.

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton was created in 2001 through the merger of the Australian Broken Hill Proprietary Company  (BHP) and the Anglo-Dutch Billiton plc. The result is a dual-listed company. The Australian-registered BHP Billiton Limited, which is the majority partner, has a primary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange and is the largest company in Australia measured by market capitalization. The UK-registered BHP Billiton Plc has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalization of approximately 39.6 billion pounds as of 23 December 2011, the ninth-largest of any company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

China Mobile

China Mobile Limited is a Chinese state-owned telecommunication company that provides mobile voice and multimedia services through its nationwide mobile telecommunications network. The company is the largest mobile telecommunications company by market capitalization. It is listed on both the NYSE and the Hong Kong stock exchange. As of January 2012, China Mobile is the world's largest mobile phone operator with about 655 million subscribers.