Interactive graphic: the world’s biggest company

Apple briefly passed Exxon Mobil to become the biggest company in the world by market capitalisation on August 10, 14 years after a brush with bankruptcy. This graphic charts the holders of the unofficial title of world’s biggest company, from Microsoft to General Electric, via two energy majors (Exxon Mobil and PetroChina ), to Apple.

The chart above shows market capitalisation figures for the five companies at the end of each month - there may be higher valuations for each stock that are not included in the data. For example, PetroChina’s $1,000bn initial valuation in November is not shown, as the stock had fallen in price by the end of the month.