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.

Continuously updated global ranking of the world’s largest publicly traded companies by market capitalization (USD) as displayed on Capital.com. The table lists each company’s rank, market cap in USD, latest share price and primary listing country; rankings reflect reported market caps as of the stated date and are updated over time.

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 United States (DDAM02USA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2016 about market cap, companies, stock market, and USA.

*********** 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.

Largest companies by market cap

What is the market capitalization of a company? The market capitalization sometimes referred as Marketcap, is the value of a publicly listed company. In most cases it can be easily calculated by multiplying the share price with the amount of outstanding shares.

Data from: https://companiesmarketcap.com/

Continuously updated global ranking of the world’s largest publicly traded technology companies by market capitalization (USD) as displayed on Capital.com. The table lists each company’s rank, market cap in USD, latest share price and primary listing country; rankings reflect reported market caps as of the stated date and are updated over time.

As of October 29, 2025, Nvidia was the leading tech company by market capitalization globally at 5 trillion U.S. dollars. Nvidia became the first company to ever achieve the 5 trillion milestone, hitting this figure for the first time in October 2025. Apple ranked second at 4 trillion U.S. dollars, followed by Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon. 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 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.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Indonesia (DDAM02IDA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2017 about market cap, Indonesia, companies, and stock market.

Continuously updated global ranking of the world’s largest publicly traded AI companies by market capitalization (USD) as displayed on Capital.com. The table lists each company’s rank, market cap in USD, latest share price and primary listing country; rankings reflect reported market caps as of the stated date and are updated over time.

Graph and download economic data for Market Capitalization Outside of Top 10 Largest Companies to Total Market Capitalization for Poland (DDAM02PLA156NWDB) from 1998 to 2020 about market cap, Poland, companies, and stock market.

In 1989, the Industrial Bank of Japan had a market capitalization of approximately ****** 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 *****.

This dataset presents a list of the biggest companies ranked by market capitalization, along with their corresponding revenue figures. Each entry includes the company's name, stock symbol, market capitalization, revenue, and other relevant financial metrics. The dataset provides valuable insights into the largest companies in terms of market value and their respective revenue performances, offering valuable information for investors, analysts, and researchers interested in understanding the financial landscape of prominent corporations.

This dataset contains the top 20 companies of the S&P 500 by market capitalization for each year from 1989 to 2023.

The data includes: - Year: Reference year - Rank: Company rank by market capitalization - Company: Company name - Ticker: Yahoo Finance ticker symbol - MarketCap_BillionsUSD: Market capitalization in billions of USD

The data was extracted from Finhacker and enriched with tickers.

This dataset is useful for: - Historical financial analysis - Visualization of market capitalization trends - Long-term investment research

ASML was the leading company by market capitalization in the Netherlands as of October 10, 2024. ASML's market capitalization amounted to approximately ****** billion U.S. dollars at that point, and was followed by Prosus with a market cap of ****** billion U.S. dollars.

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.

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.

Market capitalization refers to the total dollar market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock. Commonly referred to as "market cap," it's calculated by multiplying the total number of a company's outstanding shares by the current market price of one share.

Here we have collected the data from: https://companiesmarketcap.com/ Date: 15/03/2022

The NYSE U.S. 100 Index tracks the largest U.S. companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange. This statistic shows the leading 20 companies on the NYSE U.S. 100 Index by market capitalization. As of January 28, 2024 the multinational conglomerate company ****************** ranked as the first, with a market capitalization of over *** billion euros. This was followed by ********* and ***************, with market capitalizations amounting to *** billion and *** billion euros respectively. NYSE U.S. 100 Index vs. Nasdaq 100 Index The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are the largest two stock exchanges in the world, but they differ in the kinds of companies they list. The NYSE is known to list stable and long-lasting firms, commonly referred to as “blue-chip” companies. In contrast, the Nasdaq is renowned for listing the world’s biggest companies, mainly from the tech industry. Similar to the NYSE U.S. 100 Index, the Nasdaq 100 Index tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, including both U.S. and non-U.S. companies. The leader of the NYSE U.S. 100 index: Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway, the leader of the NYSE U.S. 100 Index, was also among the world's largest companies by revenue in 2023. The company is a multinational conglomerate and holding company with insurance as its core business and interests in other sectors such as railroad, utilities and energy, finance. In fact, Berkshire was the world's biggest insurance company by revenue in 2023. As a holding company, it has significant stakes in some of the world’s largest companies, including Apple, Bank of America and Coca-Cola. With its diverse background in various businesses and industries, Berkshire Hathaway had a total revenue of *** billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Introduction:

This analysis delves into the financial performance of top companies by examining key metrics such as revenue, earnings, market capitalisation, P/E ratio, and dividend yield. By comparing these metrics, we gain a comprehensive understanding of a company's scale, profitability, market value, and growth potential. Through visualisations, the analysis also explores correlations between these metrics and offers insights into country-level performance, highlighting economic dominance across various sectors. This holistic approach provides a multi-dimensional view of global financial powerhouses, investor confidence, and regional economic trends.

Key Metrics Used:

1. Revenue (Trailing Twelve Months - TTM): - Definition: This is the total income generated by a company from its operations in the last twelve months. - Potential Insights: High revenue often indicates market dominance or high sales volume. Comparing revenues can reveal which companies are the largest in terms of business volume.

2. Earnings (TTM): - Definition: This refers to the company's profit after taxes and expenses over the trailing twelve months. - Potential Insights: Companies with high earnings are more efficient at converting revenue into profit, suggesting better profitability or cost management. A comparison of earnings provides insight into profitability rather than just scale.

3. Market Capitalisation (Market Cap): - Definition: Market cap is the total value of a company's outstanding shares of stock, calculated as stock price multiplied by the number of shares. It indicates the company’s size in the stock market. - Potential Insights: High market cap usually indicates investor confidence in the company. Comparing market cap among the top 15 companies reveals their relative size in financial markets.

4. P/E Ratio (TTM): - Definition: Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio measures a company's current share price relative to its per-share earnings. - Potential Insights: A high P/E ratio may indicate that investors expect high growth in the future, while a low P/E ratio could imply undervaluation or scepticism about growth. Companies are compared by their growth prospects or current valuation.

5. Dividend Yield (TTM): - Definition: Dividend yield is a financial ratio that shows how much a company pays out in dividends each year relative to its share price. - Potential Insights: High dividend yield may indicate that a company returns more income to shareholders. It’s particularly useful for income-focused investors.

In this combined analysis, we will integrate the observations from the visualisations with the key financial metrics definitions and insights, to offer a comprehensive view of the top companies and country-level analysis across various financial dimensions.

Data Visualisations

Visualisation 1: https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F13231939%2F2296eddd53ddd4b84346b1ea1324ec0a%2FScreenshot%202024-10-01%2015.16.51.png?generation=1727864461164331&alt=media" alt=""> Visualisation 2: https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F13231939%2Fb35516c91e54eda75a03ff073e94dd73%2FScreenshot%202024-10-01%2015.17.53.png?generation=1727864511265917&alt=media" alt=""> Visualisation 3: https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F13231939%2F506ca2428d34b15cd46e4a31261763d7%2FScreenshot%202024-10-01%2015.18.37.png?generation=1727864562835491&alt=media" alt=""> Visualisation 4: https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F13231939%2F41e7a3e28c757239d26226f6a0ccdca9%2FScreenshot%202024-10-01%2015.19.20.png?generation=1727864614352037&alt=media" alt=""> A Markdown document with the R code for the above visualisations. link

1. Revenue (Trailing Twelve Months - TTM)

• Definition: The total income generated from a company’s operations over the last 12 months.
• Insights from Charts:
  • Revenue vs Earnings (Visualisation 2): Companies like Saudi Aramco are massive outliers with high revenues and even higher earnings, indicating impressive profitability despite their revenue volume.
  • Top 10 Countries by Average Revenue (Visualisation 3): China, South Korea, and Japan are at the top, with companies generating significant business volumes.
  • Analysis: High revenue companies like Walmart dominate the market but may not always convert this into proportional earnings or market cap growth. This could be due to operational costs or sector-specific challenges (retail margins being lower than tech).

2. Earnings (TTM)

• Definition: Profits...