Aramco Overtakes Meta? Market-Cap Ranking Unconfirmed Amid Oil Volatility
Key Facts
It could not be verified that Saudi Aramco overtook Meta in market value: the source that reported the two figures could not be opened, and no qualified source was found to confirm them. The companies’ ranking or the values attributed to them therefore cannot be established. In the oil market, Brent crude surged on October 23 before retreating in the next session covered by an Associated Press report. The crude closed at $116.72 a barrel on Friday, up 3.1%, then settled at $110.74 on Monday, down 0.9%. These moves provide a more precise timeline for any discussion of oil’s impact on Aramco, without by themselves establishing a change in the market-cap ranking.
Brent rose on October 23 to its highest level since June 2022, after climbing from below $97 at the start of the month, according to an Associated Press report. The report said crude closed at $116.72, while another report from the agency put its gain at 3.1% to above $116. After one trading day, the direction changed: Brent moved between gains and losses on October 26 before ending the session at $110.74. The daily decline was 0.9%. The shift between the two levels reflects oil-price volatility over a few days, while the comparison with Aramco’s market value remains unsubstantiated by the available evidence.
On Meta, the financing plan announced on October 26 included an underwritten public offering of about $35 billion, alongside an at-the-market sale program that could reach $60 billion. The Information said the second component would come through at-the-market sales after trading begins in the new Class C shares. The company said the financing would support AI infrastructure and computing capacity. This structure separates an underwritten offering from a subsequent at-the-market sale program, rather than describing the plan as a single share sale. The available source did not establish that the announcement resulted in the market value attributed to Meta in the initial draft.
The financing plan comes as Meta expands AI spending, alongside revenue growth and rising expenses. Revenue in the third quarter of 2026 was about $64.60 billion, up 26% from the same period a year earlier, according to the Associated Press. Expenses, meanwhile, reached $51.61 billion, up 68% year over year. The company also raised the lower end of its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to a range of $135 billion to $145 billion, from a previous range of $130 billion to $145 billion. This puts the fundraising within a broader picture of infrastructure investment and its costs, as revenue continues to grow over the same period.
Meta shares had a mixed reaction between the earnings announcement and subsequent market moves. After it released results on October 21, the stock rose 0.5% in regular trading and 2.9% in after-hours trading, according to the Associated Press. On October 26, the shares initially fell more than 2%, then reversed course to gain before ending the session down 1.9%. They closed at $630.56, after $642.62 on October 23 and $648.85 on October 22, according to L7 data. These closing prices show a decline over the sessions cited, but do not in themselves provide a verified market-cap figure or ranking for Meta.
Attention now turns to Aramco’s quarterly results; the company announced that third-quarter results will be released on November 3, 2026. The results call is scheduled to be broadcast the same day at 11 a.m. Riyadh time, according to Aramco’s investor-relations page. The upcoming announcement will be an opportunity to update the picture of the company’s performance amid volatile oil prices in October. The circulating comparison with Meta remains unconfirmed until verified market-cap data for the same date are available. The available evidence contains no figure proving that Aramco overtook Meta.