As of June 2, 2025, Nvidia ranked as the leading semiconductor company in terms of market capitalization at just under 3.3 trillion U.S. dollars, followed by the likes of Broadcom, TSMC, ASML, and Samsung. Many of the leading semiconductor stocks suffered as a result of trade tariff announcements in 2025. Nonetheless, the mix of companies featured on the list reflects the broad and complex nature of the semiconductor industry, with firms coming from across all parts of the chip ecosystem. Regional highlights The global semiconductor industry is dominated by companies from North America and the Asia-Pacific region. As a result, China, South Korea, and Taiwan rank as some of the biggest regional markets for semiconductor equipment spending. One of the world’s leading chip-making machine manufacturers, and a global leader in producing extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, machines, is ASML based in Europe. ASML supplies its machines to the likes of TSMC, who are then contracted to manufacture chips for Nvidia. A dynamic industry In 2025, the semiconductor industry is expected to grow strongly, with forecasts suggesting the market could rise to just below 700 billion U.S. dollars. Nonetheless, companies across the whole supply chain must continue to navigate a challenging and changing world. Geopolitical tensions, such as the ongoing tech competition between the United States and China, as well as the growth of the AI chip market, will have a profound influence on the semiconductor industry moving forward.

As of July 16, 2025, Nvidia was the leading tech company by market capitalization globally at 4.16 trillion U.S. dollars. Nvidia became the first company to ever achieve the four trillion milestone, hitting this figure for the first time in July 2025. Microsoft ranked second at 3.76 trillion U.S. dollars. Nvidia's immense growth With a focus that began with origins in gaming, Nvidia's business strategy has been transformed by demand from data centers that sit at the heart of the AI boom. The company's chips have been favored to support in the training and running of a range of large language models, most notably in the development of OpenAI's ChatGPT. Apple is also among the leaders Since its foundation in a Californian garage in 1976, Apple has expanded massively, becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company started its origins in the PC industry with the Macintosh, but soon entered other segments of the consumer electronics market. Today, the iPhone is the most popular Apple product, although Mac, iPad, wearables, and services also contribute to its high revenues. Aiming at innovation, Apple invests every year in research and development, spanning a wide array of technologies from AI through to extended reality.

In the third quarter of 2024, roughly ** percent of x86 computer processor or CPU tests recorded were from Intel processors, while **** percent were AMD processors. When looking solely at laptop CPUs, Intel is the clear winner, accounting for nearly ** percent of laptop CPU test benchmark results in the third quarter of 2024. Traditional x86 processors The x86 is a family of instruction set architectures (ISA) for computer processors, otherwise known as central processing units (CPUs), which were initially developed by Intel. They refer to the way a CPU handles information, with x86 architecture of variable instruction lengths, and primarily of a complex instruction set computer (CISC) design. Although additions and developments to the x86 processor have taken place, backward compatibility has remained a key feature of the architecture; the newer x86 processors can run all the programs that older processors could run. Apple Mac processors The x86 processor is the predominant hardware platform for laptops, desktops, and servers globally. Both Windows and Mac laptops have used x86 chips; previously, Apple’s line of Mac products used PowerPC microprocessors, with the transition to Intel x86 architecture first acknowledged in 2005. The first generation of Intel-based Mac computers were released in January 2006, a partnership that continued through until 2020, where Apple announced the switch of the Mac line from Intel CPUs to Arm-based processors. The decision was made in order to standardize on one CPU architecture for all iPhone, iPad, and Mac products.