This Energy Company Earned More Than Apple, Meta, Microsoft And Tesla Combined In Q2

Big techs are among the highly-profitable companies given their strong revenue growth and cost discipline. Tech giant Apple, Inc. AAPL led Fortune 500’s list of the most profitable U.S. corporations in 2021, with an annual profit of $94.7 billion.

What Happened: With the second-quarter reporting season meandering to a close, a tally of quarterly earnings shows the profits of Apple and some of the biggest names in the tech sector pale before the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, aka Saudi Aramco.

Dhahran-based Saudi Aramco is a state-owned oil and natural gas company. The company reported Sunday a 90% year-over-year increase in net income to $48.4 billion. The company also announced a second-quarter dividend of $18.8 billion, which is to be paid in the third quarter.

“Our record second-quarter results reflect increasing demand for our products — particularly as a low-cost producer with one of the lowest upstream carbon intensities in the industry,” said Amin Nasser, the company’s president and CEO.

See also: Is Saudi Aramco Stock a Good Buy?

How does the profit compare to the U.S. tech stalwarts?

Here’s how much these companies earned in the calendar year's second quarter:

• Apple, Inc. AAPL: $19.44 billion
• Microsoft Corporation MSFT $16.7 billion
• Meta Platforms, Inc. META: $6.69 billion
• Tesla, Inc. TSLA: $2.25 billion

These four companies collectively earned a profit of $45.08 billion, which is about $3 billion less than Saudi Aramco’s profit.

Why It’s Important: Saudi Aramco has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the spike in crude oil prices seen since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. The Russia-Ukraine war served to buoy prices further amid western sanctions against Russian oil imports.

The company’s profit has consistently risen since the second quarter of 2020.

Source: Statista

Saudi Aramco’s shares are listed on the Saudi stock exchange after its 2019 initial public offering through which it raised about $29.4 billion in proceeds. By market capitalization, the company stands second behind Apple. Apple’s market value is currently at $2.805 trillion compared to Saudi Aramco’s $2.332 trillion, according to companiesmarketcap.com. 

Photo via Shutterstock.