Between 2019 and 2023, oil and gas explorers and producers logged the highest total revenue worldwide, reaching 5.3 trillion U.S. dollars. Life and health insurance carriers followed behind.

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.

With over 670 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, Walmart topped the ranking of the hundred largest companies globally, followed by Amazon. Walmart was also the largest company in the world based on its number of employees, with some 2.1 million all over the world. Largest corporations based on revenue - additional information The concept of revenue itself might slightly differ depending on country or even from one company to another. It usually refers to the income resulted from normal business activities, such as the sale of goods and services to customers. Walmart The American-based multinational corporation Walmart was founded in 1962 and currently operates over 10,600 stores worldwide, out of which 4,600 are in the United States alone. In 2024, Walmart was ranked the third most valuable retail brand in the world, with a brand value of about 60 billion U.S. dollars. Follow this link to get access to the top 500 companies from all industries list.

In 2024, Microsoft generated approximately, 2780 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, making it the largest IT services company in the world in terms of revenue. Other major firms in the IT services market include Alphabet Inc., with revenues of over 1780 billion U.S. dollars, followed by AWS and Meta. IT services market A key sub-sector of the larger information technology industry is the IT services market. This sub-sector brings in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, with forecasts suggesting that this number will reach 1.42 trillion U.S. dollars in spending in 2023 after eclipsing the one trillion dollar mark in 2019. Digitalization, along with constant technological advancement, means that businesses in nearly every industry rely on IT services which results in continuous market spending. What are IT services products? The term IT services refers to a large amount of services and solutions used by businesses to assess, manage, and deliver information. These services include cloud computing, database management, as well as hardware deployment and support. Notably, these IT solutions assist in a vast array of business functions and thereby empower companies to stay agile and adaptive in a quickly changing environment.

As of January 2024, the most profitable industry in the United States was money center banking, with a profit margin of 30.89 percent. The profit margin of the regional banking was not too far off, with a net profit margin of 29.67.

This statistic shows the share of economic sectors in the global gross domestic product (GDP) from 2013 to 2023. In 2022, agriculture contributed 4.25 percent, industry contributed approximately 27.22 percent and services contributed about 61.76 percent to the global gross domestic product. See global GDP for comparison.

As of 2024, the U.S. region accounted for 38 percent of the global information and communication technology (ICT) market share. China and the EU ranked as the second and third biggest regions, each accounting for a market share of over 10 percent. ICT Industry Overview Ranking as one of the largest industries in the world, the ICT market is forecasted to reach a size of 5.5 trillion dollars in 2022, and almost six trillion by 2023. The continuous growth serves as another reminder of the ever-increasing prevalence and importance of technology in today’s society. In general, growth in traditional tech spending over the next few years will be driven foremost by big data and analytics, social, mobile, and AR/VR and robotics, ranks as the fastest growing category. Notably, next-generation security technologies that provide integrated security solutions will also be an area of investment in the future.

In 2023, the leading market research company in terms of global research revenue was Gartner, generating approximately 5.9 billion U.S. dollars. In the same year, American company IQVIA accrued roughly 5.6 billion U.S. dollars. Market research companies - global players Market research is an important business strategy involving the gathering of information about an organization’s target market. In terms of global research revenue, American company Gartner was the leading market research company worldwide. Headquartered in the United States, the number of employees working for the company totaled 20,237 people in 2023. The sixth largest market research company in terms of global research revenue was Kantar. Kantar Group is a UK-based international network of 12 companies, including Millward Brown and IMRB International. In 2022, the research revenue of Kantar amounted to approximately three billion U.S. dollars. Another European leader, and ranked seventh in the global ranking, was Ipsos. The company had a research revenue of over 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. The largest share of market research revenue made by Ipsos was generated in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2023. United States dominant in a global market The global revenue of the market research industry reached over 75 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, over half of which came from the United States. The number of full-time employees working for the top ten market research companies in the United States totaled almost 40,000 in 2020.

Walmart had about 2.1 million employees in 2023, the highest of all companies worldwide that year. Walmart also led ranking of companies by revenue in 2022, with a total revenue of about 640 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon followed in second with 1.5 million employees worldwide, with Hoi Han Precision Industry in third.

Walmart

In the United States, where Walmart has its highest number of employees, there are 4,700 stores as of 2023, and some 3,570 of these stores are Walmart’s Supercenters . The company has expanded all around the world, especially having a high number of stores in Central America.

Amazon

The number of people employed by Amazon has increased rapidly in recent years. In 2019, less than 800,000 people worked at the technology company, whereas in it employed more than 1.5 million in 2023. As with the number of employees, its net revenue has also increased over the last years.

The German chemical company BASF was ranked number one in the ranking of the world's leading chemical companies based on revenue, generating a revenue of approximately 68.03 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Revenue of the top chemical companies worldwide Chemical companies produce and develop industrial chemicals through the conversion of raw materials –organic and inorganic - into a wide variety of products. Chemical production is classified into two separate categories. There are specialty batch manufacturers that produce more expensive chemicals that are less commonly used within the chemical market. These performance chemicals are often produced by smaller manufacturers. On the other hand, commodity manufacturers tend to produce a large volume of basic and inexpensive compounds. The production of organic polymers for plastics, fibers, and elastomers is a rapidly growing sector of the chemical industry. Leading chemical manufacturing countries The chemical manufacturing industry in the United States is quite prominent, with companies such as Dow, DuPont, and LyondellBasell Industries. The chemical sector in Europe is also very prominent, as demonstrated by the fact that it represents a great proportion of their manufacturing trade surplus. Europe (and the European Union) is one of the largest chemical trading regions in the world. With Germany accounting for the largest share of total EU chemical revenue. Three of Germany’s chemical companies are considered some of the largest in the world. German companies BASF and Bayer are consistently among the largest earning chemical companies in the world. BASF operates on a global scale and maintains its segmental operations in chemicals, materials, surface technologies, nutrition and care, industrial solutions, and agricultural solutions. With headquarters around the world, Bayer is known for marketing heroin in the past and branding aspirin.

In 2023, the leading media company worldwide based on revenue was Alphabet Inc., with revenue of 284 billion euros. In second place was Meta Platforms Inc, followed by Comcast Corporation, Bytedance, and Walt Disney.

Media market - additional information

The global entertainment and media market has a high value, considering it is made up of television, radio, internet, newspaper and in general technology-based companies. In 2023, this industry had an accumulated value of approximately 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Projections for this market are optimistic as this industry is expected to increase its value over the next years, potentially reaching a revenue of 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars by 2027.

The first-ranking Alphabet had a revenue of over 284 billion euros in 2023. The U.S. is the most important regional market for Alphabet, generating over 40 percent of its revenue. Alphabet was followed by a telecommunications giant Comcast and by a fellow tech company, Meta. The U.S. is also a major market for Comcast, as they hold more than 20 percent of the pay TV market share in the U.S..

The majority of the leading media companies in the world are U.S.-based companies. Indeed, media has a major role in the daily life of Americans. On average, a consumer in the U.S. spent an more than 790 minutes per day consuming major media.

In 2023, the education and health services industry employed the largest number of people in the United States. That year, about 36,4 million people were employed in the education and health services industry.

Education and Health Services Industry

Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States has started to fall behind in both education and the health care industry. Although the U.S. spends the most money in both these industries, they do not see their desired results in comparison to other nations. Furthermore, in the education services industry, there was a relatively significant wage gap between men and women. In 2019, men earned about 1,070 U.S. dollars per week on average, while their female counterparts only earned 773 U.S. dollars per week.

Employment in the U.S.

The 2008 financial crisis was a large-scale event that impacted the entire world, especially the United States. The economy started to improve after 2010, and the number of people employed in the United States has been steadily increasing since then. However, the number of people employed in the education sector is expected to slowly decrease until 2026. The overall unemployment rate in the United States has decreased since 2010 as well.

The primary concerns for the alternatives industry for the next five years by asset managers and investors worldwide were the expectation of a global recession, with 56 percent of investors and 46 percent of asset managers expecting to face this challenge within the next five years. The second most anticipated concern is geopolitical risks.

Due to the ever-increasing amount of gathered and analyzed data, the global revenue of the market research industry has experienced strong growth in recent years. The North American market was the largest, valued at almost 24 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, with the United States accounting for more than half of the global market. Market research industry The market research industry includes any organized activity aimed at gathering information about a specific industry, market, or group of customers. Market research relies on various types of services such as statistics, models, surveys, and, increasingly, big data analytics as a key instrument to meet customers’ needs and to direct investments in R&D and in new markets. In recent years, new technologies and new devices led to the emergence of new research methods such as big data analytics, mobile surveys, and behavioral economic models. Leading market research companies With a total revenue of roughly 5.9 billion U.S dollars in 2023, Gartner was the leading market research company worldwide. Headquartered in Connecticut in the United States, Gartner is a global market research company operating worldwide. Their nearest global competitor, U.S. company IQVIA, reported 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in global revenue in 2023.

In 2023, with a revenue of approximately 32.4 billion U.S. dollars, Medtronic was the leading medical technology company in the world. The largest segment within the company was for cardiovascular care, followed by the neuroscience segment. The United States was by far the most important geographical region for Medtronic. Medtronic in numbers Medtronic was founded in Minnesota in 1949, and since then, the company has had its operational headquarters located there. However, in 2015 the legal base of Medtronic was moved to Ireland for tax reasons. Over the past 15 years, Medtronic has undergone significant increases in revenue, increasing almost year-on-year. As of 2020, almost 105 thousand people were employed worldwide. Johnson & Johnson In 2023, U.S. based medical device company Johnson & Johnson generated 30.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. The company had around 132 thousand employees in 2022. Johnson & Johnson’s largest segment within medical devices was surgical, which earned about 10 billion U.S. dollars. The orthopedics franchise was the segment’s second-largest field, generating roughly 8.9 billion U.S. dollars that year.

The top medical technology companies globally include big name companies such as General Electric, Philips and Medtronic. As of 2021, the leading medical technology company based on market share was Medtronic (U.S.). At that time Medtronic held 5.8 percent of the overall medical technology market. The company’s hold on medical technology is projected to increase slightly to 5.9 percent by 2024.

Medical technology industry

The global medical technology industry includes different types of technology that are broadly categorized as medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and digital health solutions. The total medical technology revenue has been increasing in recent years and is expected to increase dramatically by the year 2024. Research and development in the industry is also gaining ground and has experienced some of the largest growth in spending from 2015 to 2016, with significant growth expected in the future.

Company spotlight: Medtronic

Among the various medical technology companies, Medtronic is among the top in many measures. Medtronic produces medical products and devices for cardiac and vascular disease, minimally invasive therapies, restorative therapies and diabetes. In 2017, Medtronic was the top medical technology company among those that produce cardiac devices. The company beat out other competitors such as Abbott and Boston Scientific by a significant percentage of the market share. Medtronic’s total revenue worldwide has been increasing significantly in recent years and in the company’s fiscal year 2022 had reached an all time high.

Kimberly-Clark was the world's largest forestry and paper company in 2023, with revenue of more than 20.43 billion U.S. dollars. In second place that year was West Rock, which reported revenue of 20.3 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2024, the Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco posted the highest revenue of any company in the world before taxes, with an income of over 208 billion U.S. dollars. Apple, Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway, and Microsoft rounded out the top five spots in the ranking of most profitable companies. What is net income? Net income, or net profit, which differs slightly from pre-tax income, is the figure that gives the most complete overview of a company’s profitability: It is calculated as the revenue of a company less all operating expenses, debt payments, interest paid, income from subsidiary holdings, taxes, etc. Different industries have different net profit margins. The Apple doesn’t fall far In terms of market value, Microsoft was the largest company in the world in 2024, with Apple following in second. Since the beginning of the new millennium, Apple has reported ever rising amounts of worldwide revenue, with iPhone sales leading the charge.

As of March 3, 2025, Apple was the leading tech company by market capitalization globally at 3.62 trillion U.S. dollars. Nvidia ranked second at just over three trillion U.S. dollars, a figure that tumbled in January 2025 following the dramatic release and success of DeepSeek's AI model. The Chinese-made AI model jumped to the top of the Apple Store in late January, stunning investors, and sinking multiple tech stocks. Apple leads the pack 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. 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.

The global market research industry reached a record high market size of approximately 54 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Over the last decade, the global market research industry has performed contrary to broader economic trends as the industry has continued to grow. Figures for 2023 signaled an increase of about two billion U.S. dollars compared to the previous year. Market research industryMarket research is the activity of gathering information about markets in which an organization sells their produces and/or services. This often includes detailed qualitative understandings of consumer attitudes and preferences through tools such interviews, surveys, and increasingly, big-data analytics. The leading market research company worldwide was U.S.-based Gartner in 2022. Slow growth in EuropeWhile growth in the United States has been significant, the revenue of the market research industry in Europe grew just slightly since 2014. Some analysts expect this poor performance to continue into the near future for two reasons. First is the short- and mid-term uncertainty created by Brexit, impacting the reliability of any market research conducted prior to the issue being resolved. Second is the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws in May 2018, which limit what companies are able to do with personal data. A majority of IT professionals in France, Germany and the UK agree the GDPR laws will prevent personal data being passed on to third parties, reducing the amount of data available to researchers in Europe compared to other regions.