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You would be forgiven for thinking, especially if you grew up in the west, that Apple, Microsoft or Amazon were ranked right at the very top of a leaderboard of world’s most valuable ever companies.
According to howmuch.net, the former was worth $3.29trillion (£2.64trillion) in 2024.
The latter, meanwhile, was valued at a relatively modest $1.94trillion (£1.56trillion).
Microsoft was in the middle, thought to be worth $3.21trillion (£2.58trillion).
Despite these huge numbers, all three are outstripped by larger firms when one looks back in history.
The same website suggests that – when estimating how much they were worth in today’s currency – six companies were valued higher.
Saudi Aramco, for example, was reportedly worth $6.58trillion (£5.29trillion) in 2024.
Officially known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, and also known as simply Aramco, is a majority state-owned petroleum and natural gas company, and the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.
But if you go back through the centuries, you will find even larger organisations.
In 1720, the Mississippi Company was worth slightly more ($6.8trillion). This is the equivalent of £5.47trillion.
The corporation held a business monopoly in French colonies in North America and the West Indies.
It folded as a result as one of the first ever examples of an economic bubble.
In 1717, the company received a royal grant with exclusive trading rights for 25 years.
The firm was connected with the activities of the Scottish financier and economist John Law, who was the Controller General of Finances of France at the time.
The Mississippi Company became profitable and remained solvent until the collapse of the bubble, when speculation in French financial circles and land development in the region became uncontrollable and not representative of the economic reality.
The most valuable company ever, though, was the Dutch East India Company.
It is thought to have been worth as much as $8.28trillion (£6.66trillion).
It traded after being founded in the Dutch Republic in 1602 to protect the country’s economic interests in the Indian Ocean, as well as and to assist in the Dutch war of independence from Spain.
The company expanded through most of the 17th century as the instrument of the Dutch commercial empire in the East Indies – Indonesia today. The firm was dissolved in 1799.
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