Following yesterday’s Education Special Event in New York City, Apple’s (AAPL) stock briefly rose to an all-time high of US$431.37, resulting in a market capitalization of approximately $400 billion, a larger number than the gross domestic product of Greece ($311 billion).

Image of Greece flag provided by Shutterstock.

As CNN Money reports, although Apple’s market cap fell to $398 billion by the market’s close, its impressive value, second only to Exxon Mobile (XOM), is still higher than the GDPs of Greece ($311 billion), Austria ($376 billion), Argentina ($368 billion), or South Africa ($363 billion).

Reaching the $400 billion mark is yet another milestone for the Cupertino company, whose meteoric rise over the past decade has shown no signs of slowing.

Apple’s (AAPL) 10-Year Market Cap Change. Chart by YCharts.

With Exxon Mobile’s market-leading $420 billion market cap within Apple’s reach, it’s interesting to note that Apple’s closest trailing competitor, PetroChina (PTR), trails with a relatively distant $270 billion in market capitalization while longtime Apple competitor Microsoft (MSFT) follows at $235 billion.

Apple will report its first fiscal quarter results next Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:00 PM PST. As mentioned by Reuters, analysts are predicting that Apple will announce sales growth of 45% compared to last year.

Apple is currently trading in the pre-market at $426.20, down 1.55 (0.36%).