The $13.1 billion in profit Apple posted for the first quarter of 2013 is the most profitable quarter for a tech company in history, just edging out the record $13.06 billion set in the first quarter of 2013 — also by Apple.

A comparison of Apple's record quarter to those of the other most profitable companies in the United States shows Apple head and shoulders above its American peers. Apple's $13.1 billion in profit is 31 percent more than the $10 billion of its closest competitor, oil giant ExxonMobil, which briefly surpassed Apple in market cap following investors' negative reactions to the most recent quarter.

As statistics portal Statista points out, the only companies to ever post a higher quarterly profit are ExxonMobil and Russian energy giant Gazprom, which posted $16.2 billion in profit for the first quarter of 2011.