Apple Tops Exxon in Market Cap

Apple’s market cap today is about $433 billion, compared with Exxon’s of around $403 billion. Exxon’s market cap reached a peak of around $466 billion in the fall of 2007, when oil prices briefly scared $150 a barrel.

Apple peaked at a market cap of about $613 billion almost exactly five years later. But the company did not break through the $400 billion mark until last December. The steepness of Apple’s rise to its peak is matched only by the steepness of its decline. Roughly $200 billion in valuation gained and lost is not much more than a year.

But in a listing that is virtually meaningless, Apple is now firmly back on top. And Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) with a market cap of around $285 billion has just taken over third place in the league tables from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), valued at $282 billion.