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 just below 32 trillion U.S. dollars as of January 2025. The following three exchanges were the NASDAQ, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the Japan Exchange Group. 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.

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.

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The value of global domestic equity market increased from 65.04 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013 to 111 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 2023. Global market capitalization in different regions The market capitalization of domestic companies listed varied across different regions of the world. As of Decmber 2023, the Americas region had the largest domestic equity market, totaling 54 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 48 billion U.S. dollars as of December 2023, larger than the market capitalization in the Asia-Pacific (34 trillion U.S. dollars) and EMEA (23 trillion U.S. dollars) regions in the same period. Largest Stock Exchanges in Latin America As of December 2023, the B3 (Brasil Bolsa Balcao) was the biggest stock exchange in Latin America in terms of market capitalization and number of listed companies. Following the B3 were the Mexican Stock Exchange and the Santiago Stock Exchange in Chile. Moreover, the B3 also facilitated the trading of Petrobras, the largest Latin American company, with a market capitalization of nearly 95 billion U.S. dollars as of the same period.

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As of January 2025, Amazon's market capitalization surpassed 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars, making it the most valuable internet company by market capitalization worldwide. Second-ranked Alphabet had a market capitalization of approximately 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars. Social networking company Meta Platforms (née Facebook Inc.) ranked third. Facebook is the leading social network worldwide and has successfully taken advantage of the increasingly mobile online environment. Amazon's position in the market Amazon is one of the biggest internet companies worldwide by revenue. It generates profit from its position as the world's largest online retailer. In 2023, the company's net sales revenue amounted to 574.78 billion U.S. dollars. The e-commerce giant's net revenue, generated through online stores, was 231.87 billion U.S. dollars. Google and its most profitable services Google, with the parent company Alphabet inc, generates its revenue mainly from advertising. The company uses its advertisement services, such as Google AdWords – which takes advantage of Google searches and appears as small advertisements next to search results – and Google AdSense, which generates advertisements based on a user's search history and location, among others. Advertisements based on AdSense appear across Google-owned sites, including YouTube and Google Finance. The online company also profits from the development of Android OS, licensing, and mobile apps. In 2024, Google’s total revenue amounted to 348.16 billion U.S. dollars.

As of January 1, 2025, tech giants Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft , Amazon, and Alphabet (Google) dominated the S&P 500 index and were the among only nine companies with a market capitalization exceeding one trillion U.S. dollars in the U.S.

In 2009, Ecxxon Mobil Corp had a market capitalization of approximately 327.71 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.

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 Berkshire Hathaway ranked as the first, with a market capitalization of over 900 billion euros. This was followed by Eli Lilly and JP Morgan Chase, with market capitalizations amounting to 695 billion and 678 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 365 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

As of September 2023, the France-incorporated company Saint-Gobain was the second-largest construction company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a market capitalization of approximately 34 billion British pounds. The leading construction company on the LSE was the Irish CRH, with a market cap of over 46 billion British pounds. Construction and materials companies on the exchange had a combined market capital value of 96 billion British pounds as of September 2024. CRH largest Irish company CRH, is an international group of enterprises which cover the construction process from materials and products, to distribution. CRH not only topped the London Stock exchange for construction companies, they are also the second largest company headquartered in Ireland in terms of turnover. London Stock Exchange As of June 2023, the London Stock Exchange had approximately 1,700 companies trading from more than 70 countries globally with a combined market capital of approximately 3.7 trillion British pounds (GBP). Seen as the heart of the global financial community, the London Stock Exchange is the second largest market in Europe and ranks eighth globally.

With a market cap of over two trillion U.S. dollars, Amazon ranks first among the leading large cap e-commerce companies worldwide. According to December 2024 data, the e-commerce giant ranks ahead of Alibaba and Pinduoduo. During the measured period, Alibaba's market cap amounted to over 200 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon is one of the most valuable brands worldwide Ranked fourth out of the leading brands worldwide, Amazon continues to grow, with its brand value estimated at 577 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon.com was founded in 1994 and has since become one of the world’s largest e-commerce retailers selling goods like books, clothing, electronics, and even having its own subscription service, Amazon Prime. In 2023, the company achieved a net sales revenue of 575 billion U.S. dollars, showing its continued profitability. Despite its worldwide popularity, Amazon’s annual net sales revenue is remarkably higher in North America (353 billion U.S. dollars) when compared to how the company performs internationally (131 billion U.S. dollars). A closer look at Amazon's third-party sellers Most of Amazon's units (61 percent) are sold by third-party (3P) sellers, meaning independent sellers who list and sell products on the marketplace but do not sell the products to the platform itself. In 2023, Amazon made 140 billion U.S. dollars in global net revenue from 3P sales alone. However, in Amazon's biggest market, the United States, most sellers use a hybrid model (74 percent), this includes both 3P and first-party (1P) sellers, with the latter being a business or manufacturer that sells its products directly to a retailer or platform.

This horizontal bar chart displays market cap ($) by sector and is filtered where the company is HERA. The data is about companies.

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.

This horizontal bar chart displays market cap ($) by city using the aggregation sum and is filtered where the company is Ichibanya. The data is about companies.

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.