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.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest stock exchange in the world, with an equity market capitalization of almost ** trillion U.S. dollars as of June 2025. The following three exchanges were the NASDAQ, PINK Exchange, and the Frankfurt Exchange. What is a stock exchange? A stock exchange is a marketplace where stockbrokers, traders, buyers, and sellers can trade in equities products. The largest exchanges have thousands of listed companies. These companies sell shares of their business, giving the general public the opportunity to invest in them. The oldest stock exchange worldwide is the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, founded in the late sixteenth century. Other functions of a stock exchange Since these are publicly traded companies, every firm listed on a stock exchange has had an initial public offering (IPO). The largest IPOs can raise billions of dollars in equity for the firm involved. Related to stock exchanges are derivatives exchanges, where stock options, futures contracts, and other derivatives can be traded.

The average for 2022 based on 74 countries was 1244.55 billion U.S. dollars. The highest value was in the USA: 40297.98 billion U.S. dollars and the lowest value was in Bermuda: 0.21 billion U.S. dollars. The indicator is available from 1975 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

As of September 11, 2024, the largest company in Singapore is the DBS Group, with a market capitalization of 81.33 billion Singapore dollars. The largest three companies in Singapore by market capitalization were two of its largest banks, followed by consumer internet company Sea Limited. DBS, OCBC, and UOB - stalwarts of Singapore’s financial sector Singapore’s three largest banking groups – DBS Group, OCBC, and UOB, are seen as stable stock market investments. They routinely make up the top three leading companies by market capitalization and rank consistently among the most valuable brands in Singapore. Despite the global economic turmoil, these three banks were forecast to turn profits in 2023, being among the biggest beneficiaries of rising interest rates in the Asia-Pacific region. Singapore is a leading financial hub in the Asia-Pacific region, and its financial sector makes up the third-largest sector of its economy. Sea Limited and Grab - volatility of tech companies in the stock market Among the largest companies in Singapore are two of its biggest tech companies, Sea Limited and Grab Holdings. Sea Limited operates the e-commerce marketplace Shopee and online gaming company Garena, while Grab Holdings is a super-app that provides ride-hailing, food delivery, and digital payment services. Despite the popularity of their services, both companies have faced a turbulent year, with Grab Holdings seeing their share prices drop during the first day of trading. Once valued more than DBS, OCBC, and UOB combined, Sea Limited saw its valuation drop in 2022 amidst net losses of around two billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

This statistic presents a ranking of the market capitalization of selected U.S. tech and internet companies in 2006, and from 2014 to 2020. Apple's market cap soared from 461.41 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to 1.53 trillion dollars in 2020. Apple's market cap pushed the company ahead of last year's leader Microsoft.

Public offerings of tech and internet companies

A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. The initial public offering (IPO) of a company occurs when a company offers its shares for the first time for public ownership and trading.

Hardware companies such as Apple or IBM have been traded publicly for a while but younger, online-based companies such as Google or most notably Facebook and most recently, Snap Inc. have been generating a lot of buzz surrounding their IPOs and subsequent stock prices. Facebook’s initial public offering was intensely hyped over months with projections of a 100 billion US dollar valuation but it dwindled down to a range of 60 to 75 billion US dollars prior to the listing.

Other tech stock performances have been more stable – both online retailer Amazon and search and digital advertising giant Google’s - now Alphabet's - shares have been on a more upwards trend. The most impressive development however came from Apple which totally changed its stock performance after the 2008 introduction of the iPhone. Since then, the company has been catapulted to the top of the smartphone market, multiplying its market capitalization as well as regularly being ranked as one of the most valuable brands worldwide.

Key information about Vietnam Market Capitalization

• Vietnam Market Capitalization accounted for 220.052 USD bn in Feb 2025, compared with a percentage of 216.705 USD bn in the previous month
• Vietnam Market Capitalization is updated monthly, available from Jan 2010 to Feb 2025
• The data reached an all-time high of 255.722 USD bn in Mar 2022 and a record low of 21.787 USD bn in Dec 2011

CEIC converts monthly Market Capitalization into USD. Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange provides Market Capitalization in local currency. The State Bank of Vietnam period end market exchange rate is used for currency conversions. Market Capitalization covers Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange only, which is the main stock market in Vietnam.

The average for 2022 based on 11 countries was 511.17 billion U.S. dollars. The highest value was in Saudi Arabia: 2638.59 billion U.S. dollars and the lowest value was in Tunisia: 7.75 billion U.S. dollars. The indicator is available from 1975 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Key information about India Market Capitalization: % of GDP

• India Market Capitalization accounted for 133.5 % of its Nominal GDP in Dec 2024, compared with a percentage of 120.9 % in the previous year
• India Market Capitalization: % Nominal GDP is updated yearly, available from Dec 1993 to Dec 2024
• The data reached an all-time high of 146.4 % in Dec 2007 and a record low of 23.0 % in Dec 2001

CEIC calculates annual Market Capitalization as % of Nominal GDP from monthly Market Capitalization and annual Nominal GDP. BSE Limited provides Market Capitalization in local currency. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation provides Nominal GDP in local currency. Nominal GDP is reported in annual frequency, ending in March of each year.


Further information about India Market Capitalization: % of GDP

• In the latest reports, SENSEX recorded a daily P/E ratio of 20.6 in Mar 2025
• Sensitive 30 (Sensex) closed at 73,198.1 points in Feb 2025

As of December 2024, the Shanghai Stock Exchange had the largest domestic market capitalization among stock exchanges in the Asia Pacific region, amounting to approximately *** trillion U.S. dollars. Second in the ranking was the Shanghai Stock Exchange Group, followed by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Stock exchanges in Asia PacificThe major stock exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region are the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange in Mainland China, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong, and the Bombay Stock Exchange in India, which is also the oldest stock exchange in Asia. Also, five out of the ten largest stock exchange operators in the world are located in Asia.What is market capitalization?Market capitalization, also commonly referred to as market cap, is a measure of the total market value of outstanding shares of a company on the stock market. It indicates a company’s relative size and value while taking various determinants such as risk and the market’s perception into consideration. There are large-cap (>** billion), mid-cap (* to ** billion) and small-cap (*** million to * billion) companies depending on their market capitalization.

The average for 2022 based on 11 countries was 122.08 billion U.S. dollars. The highest value was in South Africa: 1171.75 billion U.S. dollars and the lowest value was in the Seychelles: 1.22 billion U.S. dollars. The indicator is available from 1975 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Microsoft market cap as of June 18, 2025 is $2.734T. Microsoft market cap history and chart from 2010 to 2025. Market capitalization (or market value) is the most commonly used method of measuring the size of a publicly traded company and is calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the number of shares outstanding.

Key information about Saudi Arabia Market Capitalization

• Saudi Arabia Market Capitalization accounted for 2,667.273 USD bn in Feb 2025, compared with a percentage of 2,740.562 USD bn in the previous month
• Saudi Arabia Market Capitalization is updated monthly, available from Dec 2005 to Feb 2025
• The data reached an all-time high of 3,325.689 USD bn in Apr 2022 and a record low of 218.463 USD bn in Feb 2009

CEIC converts monthly Market Capitalization into USD. Saudi Exchange provides Market Capitalization in local currency. Saudi Central Bank period end market exchange rate is used for currency conversions. Since January 2017, the IFRS accounting standard for all listed companies and the Global Industry Classification Standard has been adopted.

In 2024, Netflix was the second-largest media company ranked by market capitalization - at 290.8 billion U.S. dollars. At the same time, Apple outperformed the top media companies by a large margin, with a market cap of over 3.2 trillion U.S. dollars that year. Disney closed the top three with 181 billion U.S. dollars in market capitalization.

As of May, 2023, Wanhua Chemical Group Co Ltd. was the leading Chinese chemical company based on market capitalization, with a market cap of nearly 32 billion U.S. dollars. In second place as of that time was Hengli Petrochemical Co Ltd, with a market cap worth 12.32 billion U.S. dollars.

The market capitalization of companies in the United States was almost six times than that of China as of June 2025, making up a large share of the world's total market capitalization. Listed companies in the U.S. had a total market capitalization of nearly ** trillion U.S. dollars - against ** trillion U.S. dollars recorded by China. Japan followed as the next country in the ranking of nearly ***** trillion U.S. dollars.

The average for 2020 based on 28 countries was 47.89 percent. The highest value was in Japan: 82.65 percent and the lowest value was in Zambia: 5 percent. The indicator is available from 1998 to 2020. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Fintech companies headquartered in the United States and China lead the ranking of the largest fintech companies worldwide by market capitalization. As of February 2025, the two largest companies were the payment companies Visa and Mastercard, both headquartered in the United States, with a market capitalization of roughly 696.6 and 521.8 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. Shopify ranked third, and Intuit ranked fourth with a market capitalization of 163 billion U.S. dollars. European-headquartered fintechs, such as Adyen and Checkout.com, were also among the top fintech companies by market capitalization. United States: the land of unicorns The fintech sector is famous for being filled with successful companies that have turned into unicorns. The term unicorn refers to a privately held startup company that has a valuation that exceeds one billion U.S. dollars. The United States had not only the largest fintech companies, but also the highest number of fintech unicorns. In addition, eight out of the ten most valuable fintech unicorns were headquartered in the United States. Mobile payment trends and market penetration Mobile payment solutions are gaining traction globally, with some services showing strong regional preferences. Venmo, a U.S.-based digital wallet owned by PayPal, demonstrated an eight percent year-on-year growth in total payment volume, reaching 69 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2024. While Venmo's market share is highest in the United States, it has also gained significant traction in Latin America, with nearly four percent of Venezuelan merchants integrating Venmo into their websites. This trend highlights the growing importance of mobile payment solutions in both developed and emerging markets.

The leading mining company in China based on market capitalization as of July 2023 was Zijin Mining Group, with a market cap of more than 42 billion U.S. dollars. Zijin Mining Group is a multinational mining company that is headquartered in mainland China. In a distant second place in the ranking was Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., with a market cap of 17.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Serbia Market Capitalization: BELEX data was reported at 478,820.905 RSD mn in Apr 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 478,168.009 RSD mn for Mar 2025. Serbia Market Capitalization: BELEX data is updated monthly, averaging 597,295.682 RSD mn from Apr 2004 (Median) to Apr 2025, with 253 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,543,017.734 RSD mn in Aug 2007 and a record low of 203,320.044 RSD mn in Apr 2004. Serbia Market Capitalization: BELEX data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Belgrade Stock Exchange. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Serbia – Table RS.Z003: Belgrade Stock Exchange: Market Capitalization.

Key information about China Market Capitalization

• China Market Capitalization accounted for 11,870.548 USD bn in Feb 2025, compared with a percentage of 11,513.605 USD bn in the previous month
• China Market Capitalization is updated monthly, available from Jul 1995 to Feb 2025
• The data reached an all-time high of 14,375.423 USD bn in Dec 2021 and a record low of 40.601 USD bn in Jan 1996

CEIC calculates monthly Market Capitalization as the sum of Market Capitalization of Shanghai Stock Exchange and Market Capitalization of Shenzhen Stock Exchange and converts it into USD. Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange provides Market Capitalization in local currency. The Federal Reserve Board period end market exchange rate is used for currency conversions.