Apple v. ExxonMobil: Not Even Close Any More

The Intersection
By Chris Mooney
Feb 4, 2011 8:04 PMNov 20, 2019 5:47 AM

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In October I wrote that "Apple is Almost Worth as Much as ExxonMobil: And That's Good for the Planet." And it would have been. However, ExxonMobil's value has since shot through the roof, making it far and away the biggest company in the world (in terms of market capitalization) with no nearby competition. I just checked: ExxonMobil's market cap is $ 415 billion; Apple's is currently $ 316 billion. As the folks at CNN Money note,

It just goes to show that as cool (and profitable) as selling iPads, iPhones and iEverything else may be, there’s not yet an app that I know of that can cause oil prices to fall below $80 a barrel with a mere click. So it looks like Exxon’s tiger in the tank may continue to take a bite out of Apple in the market cap race for a little while longer.

Why this matters? Because the difference between oil and tech, between Texas and California, is about a lot more than money. It's about values, the future of the clean economy, and the role of wealth in our society. For more, see my original post on this here.

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