According to recently released financial data, the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco has beaten Apple to become the world’s most profitable company as of 2018. According to this data, Aramco made a mammoth $111 billion in fiscal 2018, surpassing Apple which made $59.53 billion in the same period. In fact, Aramco also topped companies like J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) who made a combined $106 billion in 2018.
Recently, Aramco has also disclosed a $10 billion bond sale, which it plans to use to fund a nearly $70 billion stake in Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals company.
However, Aramco still fell short of receiving top credit ratings from agencies like Moody’s, as the latter thinks that the company’s dependence on Saudi’s economy could prove disadvantageous in the long run. Analysts further think that even though Aramco runs as a fairly independent company, the government’s budget is highly dependent on the contributions from the company in the form of taxes, royalties, etc.