Saudi Aramco

The California-Arabian Standard Oil Company was granted a concession to explore for oil in Saudi Arabia in May 1933. King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud signed the agreement for a £35,000 advance against future royalties. The Americans began drilling. In 1938, they struck one of the largest oil deposits ever discovered. The company was renamed Arabian American Oil Company — Aramco — in 1944.

Saudi Arabia participated in the 1973 oil embargo against the United States following U.S. support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Oil prices quadrupled. Saudi Arabia simultaneously began acquiring controlling interest in Aramco from its American owners. By 1980, Saudi Arabia owned 100% of the company. The nationalisation transferred one of the most valuable assets in human history from American corporations to the Saudi state.

Saudi Aramco went public on the Saudi stock exchange in December 2019, raising $25.6 billion — surpassing Alibaba's 2014 record as the world's largest IPO. The offering valued Aramco at $1.7 trillion, making it briefly the world's most valuable company. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had originally sought a $2 trillion valuation; international investors pushed back. The IPO was ultimately placed almost entirely with Saudi domestic investors.

Saudi Aramco reported net income of $159.7 billion in 2022 — the largest annual profit ever recorded by any company in history, surpassing Apple's previous record. The profit was driven by elevated oil prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Aramco distributed $75 billion in dividends. The company produced approximately 12% of the world's oil supply from a single country.

As oil prices moderated from their 2022 peaks, Aramco's net income declined from its record levels — but remained among the highest of any company on earth. Saudi Arabia continued to use Aramco's dividends as a primary funding mechanism for Vision 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's programme to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil dependence. Aramco began investing in petrochemicals, renewable energy, and AI infrastructure — an acknowledgment that the company whose entire value rested on oil reserves needed to prepare for a world that might one day not need them.