Countries Whose Biggest Company Was Founded in California

When you think of the world’s biggest companies you probably think of names like Apple (founded in California), Microsoft (founded in New Mexico), Amazon (founded in Washington), Google (founded in California) or Meta (founded in Massachusetts).

However, the biggest company by Market cap in the world right now is Nvidia which was founded in Sunnyvale, California on April 5, 1993 and is worth a staggering $4.3 trillion USD.

This means the most valuable company in the United States was founded in California.

But it’s not the only country for which this is true, because Saudi Arabia’s largest company (Saudi Aramco) was also founded in California.

More about the company:

Early Years: A California Beginning (1930s-1940s)

• 1933: The modern story begins when Saudi Arabia, under King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, granted an oil concession to Standard Oil of California (SoCal, later Chevron). At the time, Saudi Arabia was a young kingdom with limited financial resources, and SoCal was searching for new oil fields beyond the U.S.
• 1933–1938: SoCal created a subsidiary called the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) to handle operations. After years of surveying and drilling, oil was finally struck in 1938 at Dammam Well No. 7, near Dhahran, a transformative discovery.
• CASOC soon attracted other American oil companies. Texaco joined in 1936, and later Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon) and Socony (Mobil) acquired stakes. CASOC became the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in 1944.

Growth and U.S.–Saudi Partnership (1940s-1970s)

• WWII period: Aramco became strategically important as Allied powers relied on Middle Eastern oil. After the war, U.S. involvement deepened, symbolized by the famous 1945 meeting between King Abdulaziz and President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the USS Quincy.
• 1950s–1960s: Saudi oil exports surged, turning the desert kingdom into a critical energy supplier. Aramco built infrastructure, pipelines (like the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, TAPLINE), and company towns.
• While Aramco was technically owned by U.S. firms, it operated in Saudi Arabia, and profits were increasingly shared with the kingdom through taxes and royalties.

Nationalization and the Birth of Saudi Aramco (1970s-1980s)

• 1973–1974 oil crisis: With oil prices skyrocketing and OPEC asserting itself, Saudi Arabia pushed for greater control over its resources.
• 1973: The Saudi government purchased a 25% stake in Aramco.
• 1974: That stake rose to 60%.
• 1980: The Saudi state took full ownership of Aramco, though the Americans stayed on as technical advisors.
• 1988: The company was formally renamed the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), the national oil champion.

Modern Era: Global Giant (1990s–Present)

• 1990s–2000s: Saudi Aramco became the world’s largest oil producer, controlling vast reserves (over 260 billion barrels, among the largest in the world). It expanded downstream into refining, chemicals, and global partnerships.
• 2019 IPO: Aramco went public (though only a small fraction of shares) on the Saudi stock exchange (Tadawul). It raised about $25.6 billion, he world’s largest IPO at the time, valuing the company at nearly $1.7 trillion (now down to $1.6 Trillion).
• Today:
  • Saudi Aramco remains one the most profitable company in the world, often surpassing tech giants like Apple.
  • It produces ~10% of the world’s crude oil supply.
  • It plays a central role in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the kingdom’s diversification plan, using oil wealth to invest in renewables, hydrogen, and global industries.
  • At the same time, it faces challenges from the global energy transition, pressure to decarbonize, and fluctuating oil prices.

And finally here is a map of where all the world’s 11 $1T+ Companies Were founded:

Full list:

1. NVIDIA: $4.3T (April 5, 1993 in Sunnyvale, California)
2. Microsoft: $3.8T (April 4, 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico)
3. Apple: $3.8T (April 1, 1976 in Los Altos, California)
4. Alphabet (Google): $3.0T (October 2, 2015 in Mountain View, California; Google founded: September 4, 1998 in Menlo Park, California)
5. Amazon: $2.4T (July 5, 1994 in Bellevue, Washington)
6. Meta Platforms (Facebook): $1.9T (January 4, 2004; 21 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts)
7. Saudi Aramco: $1.6T (29 May 1933 (as California-Arabian Standard Oil) in in Los Angeles, California)
8. Broadcom: $1.6T (1961 in Palo Alto, California)
9. TSMC: $1.5T (21 February 1987 in Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan)
10. Tesla: $1.4T (July 1, 2003 in San Carlos, California)
11. Berkshire Hathaway: $1.1T (1955 in New Bedford, Massachusetts)