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.

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 Peru (DDAM02PEA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about Peru, market cap, companies, and stock market.

The Nasdaq 100 Index tracks the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. This statistic shows the leading 20 companies on the Nasdaq 100 Index by market capitalization. As of January 2025, the American technology company ***** ranked first, with a market capitalization of over ***** trillion euros. This was followed by ******, with a market capitalization amounting to *** trillion euros.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Cyprus (DDAM02CYA156NWDB) from 2004 to 2020 about Cyprus, market cap, companies, and stock market.

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 Greece (DDAM02GRA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about Greece, 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 India (DDAM02INA156NWDB) from 2001 to 2018 about market cap, companies, India, and stock market.

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

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Slovenia (DDAM02SIA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2014 about Slovenia, market cap, companies, and stock market.

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.

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.

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 ---

The value of global domestic equity market increased from 65.04 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013 to 124.63 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. The United States was by far the leading country with the largest share of total world stocks as of 2024. Global market capitalization in different regions The market capitalization of domestic companies listed varied across different regions of the world. As of Decmber 2024, the Americas region had the largest domestic equity market, totaling 62 trillion U.S. dollars. This region is home to the NYSE and Nasdaq, which are the two largest stock exchange operators in the world. The market capitalization of these two exchanges alone exceeded 60 billion U.S. dollars as of January 2025, larger than the total market capitalization in the Asia-Pacific, and in the EMEA regions in the same period. Largest Stock Exchanges in Latin America As of December 2024, the B3 (Brasil Bolsa Balcao) was the biggest stock exchange in Latin America in terms of market capitalization and the second-largest in terms of number of listed companies. Following the B3 were the Mexican Stock Exchange and the Santiago Stock Exchange in Chile. The most valuable company in Latin America is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange: Fomento Económico Mexicano, a multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey, had market cap of 177 billion U.S. dollars as of March 2025.

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.

In 1989, the Industrial Bank of Japan had a market capitalization of approximately 104.29 billion U.S dollars, making it the largest company in the world at the time. Six of the ten largest companies worldwide in 1989 were based in Japan while the remaining four were American, highlighting the economic dominance of these two countries in the late 1980s.

As of February 2022, Finland based UPM Kymmene had a market capitalization of 19.07 billion U.S. dollars. This was the largest market cap of the leading forestry and paper companies worldwide. U.S. based International Paper had the second highest market cap, at 12.75 billion U.S. dollars.

Over-the-counter stock historical market value ranking (GreTai Securities Market)