With a market capitalization of 3.12 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 2024, Microsoft was the world’s largest company that year. Rounding out the top five were some of the world’s most recognizable brands: Apple, NVIDIA, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Amazon. Saudi Aramco led the ranking of the world's most profitable companies in 2023, with a pre-tax income of nearly 250 billion U.S. dollars. How are market value and market capitalization determined? Market value and market capitalization are two terms frequently used – and confused - when discussing the profitability and viability of companies. Strictly speaking, market capitalization (or market cap) is the worth of a company based on the total value of all their shares; an important metric when determining the comparative value of companies for trading opportunities. Accordingly, many stock exchanges such as the New York or London Stock Exchange release market capitalization data on their listed companies. On the other hand, market value technically refers to what a company is worth in a much broader context. It is determined by multiple factors, including profitability, corporate debt, and the market environment as a whole. In this sense it aims to estimate the overall value of a company, with share price only being one element. Market value is therefore useful for determining whether a company’s shares are over- or undervalued, and in arriving at a price if the company is to be sold. Such valuations are generally made on a case-by-case basis though, and not regularly reported. For this reason, market capitalization is often reported as market value. What are the top companies in the world? The answer to this question depends on the metric used. Although the largest company by market capitalization, Microsoft's global revenue did not manage to crack the top 20 companies. Rather, American multinational retailer Walmart was ranked as the largest company in the world by revenue. Walmart also had the highest number of employees in the world.

In 2009, Ecxxon Mobil Corp had a market capitalization of approximately ****** billion U.S dollars, making it the largest company in the world at the time. Five of the ten largest companies worldwide in 2009 were based in the United States, with three from Europe and two from China.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Colombia (DDAM02COA156NWDB) from 2003 to 2020 about Colombia, market cap, companies, and stock market.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Spain (DDAM02ESA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about market cap, Spain, companies, and stock market.

*********** was the leading company in the United Kingdom by market capitalization as of October 11, 2024. Headquartered in Cambridge, England, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company had a market capitalization of approximately ****** billion U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for China (DDAM02CNA156NWDB) from 2001 to 2020 about market cap, companies, stock market, and China.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Brazil (DDAM02BRA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2019 about market cap, Brazil, companies, and stock market.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Switzerland (DDAM02CHA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2018 about Switzerland, market cap, companies, and stock market.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Peru (DDAM02PEA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about Peru, market cap, companies, and stock market.

As of January 2025, Amazon's market capitalization surpassed 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars, making it the most valuable internet company by market capitalization worldwide. Second-ranked Alphabet had a market capitalization of approximately 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars. Social networking company Meta Platforms (née Facebook Inc.) ranked third. Facebook is the leading social network worldwide and has successfully taken advantage of the increasingly mobile online environment. Amazon's position in the market Amazon is one of the biggest internet companies worldwide by revenue. It generates profit from its position as the world's largest online retailer. In 2023, the company's net sales revenue amounted to 574.78 billion U.S. dollars. The e-commerce giant's net revenue, generated through online stores, was 231.87 billion U.S. dollars. Google and its most profitable services Google, with the parent company Alphabet inc, generates its revenue mainly from advertising. The company uses its advertisement services, such as Google AdWords – which takes advantage of Google searches and appears as small advertisements next to search results – and Google AdSense, which generates advertisements based on a user's search history and location, among others. Advertisements based on AdSense appear across Google-owned sites, including YouTube and Google Finance. The online company also profits from the development of Android OS, licensing, and mobile apps. In 2024, Google’s total revenue amounted to 348.16 billion U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for India (DDAM02INA156NWDB) from 2001 to 2018 about market cap, companies, India, and stock market.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Greece (DDAM02GRA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about Greece, market cap, companies, and stock market.

Investor AB, was the leading company by market capitalization in Sweden as of October 10, 2024. The Swedish investment company had a market cap of approximately ***** billion U.S. dollars. Atlas Copco and Spotify were the other largest companies, with a market cap of ***** and **** billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

Analysis of ‘6,000 Largest Companies Ranked by Market Cap’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/prasertk/6000-largest-companies-ranked-by-market-cap on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Context

Largest Companies by Market Cap.

Acknowledgements

Data source: https://companiesmarketcap.com/ Cover image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/high-rise-buildings-443383/

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

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As of April 10, 2025, tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon dominated the S&P 500 index and were among only eight companies with a market capitalization exceeding *** ******** U.S. dollars in the U.S.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for New Zealand (DDAM02NZA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about New Zealand, market cap, companies, and stock market.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Sri Lanka (DDAM02LKA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about Sri Lanka, market cap, companies, and stock market.

This horizontal bar chart displays market cap ($) by public companies using the aggregation sum. The data is filtered where the company is Man Group. The data is about companies.