The Biggest: Most Valuable Companies in the World

Calculating the real value of a company is no easy task. Some of the aspects of the “real value” are subjective in nature, and thus, may vary according to the evaluator. However, market capitalization is probably the most objective criteria to gauge the value of a company. Market cap tells us how much money the company is worth in the market. In today’s world we have many trillion-dollar companies and this number is rising. Let’s have a look at the companies whose market capitalization is highest in the world.

1. Saudi Aramco

Country: Saudi Arab
Market Cap: Over USD 2.382 trillion
Sector: Petroleum and natural gas

Saudi Aramco is the world’s biggest oil company and world’s most valuable company. It operates the Master Gas System, the world’s largest single hydrocarbon network. Saudi Aramco is owned by the government of Saudi Arab. The government made 5% stake in the company available to the public through an initial public offering (IPO) on 04 December 2019. This IPO was one of the world’s biggest and was subscribed 456 percent. Saudi Aramco raised USD 25.6 billion in this IPO.

2. Apple

Country: United States
Market Cap: Over USD 2.306 trillion
Sector: Consumer electronics, software and online services

Founded on 01 April 1976 by the legendary Steve Jobs along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne — Apple is the world’s second most valuable company today. In August 2018, Apple became the first publicly listed company to cross the market cap of one trillion dollars. Two years later, in August 2020, Apple became worth two trillion dollars and in January 2022, three trillion dollars mark was reached. Maker of gadgets like iPhone, iPad, iMac etc. Apple is one of the world’s most valuable brands as well.

2. Microsoft

Country: United States
Market Cap: Over USD 1.921 trillion
Sector: Software, consumer electronics and online services

Bill Gates and Paul Allen established Microsoft on 04 April 1975. Microsoft dominated the personal computer software market after the launch of MS-DOS and then Microsoft Windows. These computer operating systems became so ubiquitous that today Microsoft is counted among the world’s most valuable brands too. In 2012, Microsoft acquired Nokia in hope of establishing itself as a dominant player in the mobile phone market.

4. Alphabet

Country: United States
Market Cap: USD 1.488 trillion
Sector: Conglomerate holding company

Alphabet was created on 02 October 2015 through the restructuring of Google — the search king of the Internet. As a result of this restructuring, Alphabet become the parent company of Google. One of the Big Five American information technology companies, Alphabet does not own the domain alphabet.com – instead it has chosen abc.xyx as its corporate domain name. In December 2019, Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin resigned from their executive posts. However, they remain employees, board members, and controlling shareholders of Alphabet Inc.

5. Amazon

Country: United States
Market Cap: USD 1.101 trillion
Sector: E-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming

In July 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookstore. On 15 May 1997, Amazon brought its Initial Public Offering (IPO) at USD 18 per share and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange with the symbol AMZN. Today, the company owns many of the well-recognized brands such as Amazon Prime Video, AWS, Audible, IMDb, Amazon Music, Twitch, Ring and Whole Foods Market. Needless to say, Amazon is the world’s largest online retailing platform too.

6. Tesla

Country: United States
Market Cap: USD 761 billion
Sector: Automotive and clean energy

Tesla was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as Tesla Motors.  The company’s name was chosen as a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. In February 2004, Elon Musk invested USD 6.5 million in Tesla and became the largest shareholder. Musk had received USD 100 million from the sale of his stake in PayPal. In September 2009, a lawsuit settlement entitled  Eberhard, Tarpenning, Musk, Ian Wright, and Jeffrey Straubel to call themselves co-founders of the company. In 2008, Elon Musk became the CEO of the company and since then he has been the face of Tesla.

7. Berkshire Hathaway

Country: United States
Market Cap: USD 674 billion
Sector: Conglomerate holding company

Berkshire Hathaway started its journey as a textile company in 1839. In 1960s, investor Warren Buffet bought majority shares in the company and turned it into a investment holding company. Rest, as they say, is history. Both Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway became legends in the realm of investments. Today Berkshire Hathaway fully own companies including GEICO, Duracell, Dairy Queen, BNSF Railway, Lubrizol, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, Long & Foster, FlightSafety International, Shaw Industries, Pampered Chef, Forest River, and NetJets.

8. Meta Platforms

Country: United States
Market Cap: USD 560 billion
Sector: Conglomerate holding company

Formerly known as the Facebook Inc., the Meta Platforms is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg on 28 October 2003. On 18 May 2012, the company floated its Initial Public Offer (IPO) and raised USD 16 billion. On 28 October 2021. The company rebranded itself from Facebook to Meta Platforms. The new name was chosen to reflect the company’s focus of building metaverse —  an integrated environment that links all of the company’s products and services.

Other Most Valuable Companies in the World

Apart from the above mentioned companies, there are a number of other companies that have market capitalization of over 100 billion dollars.

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
• UnitedHealth (UNH)
• TSMC (TSM)
• Tencent (TCEHY)
• NVIDIA (NVDA)
• Walmart (WMT)
• Visa (V)
• Procter & Gamble (PG)
• JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
• Exxon Mobil (XOM)
• Samsung (005930.KS)
• Nestlé (NESN.SW)
• Kweichow Moutai (600519.SS)
• Mastercard (MA)
• Chevron (CVX)
• Roche (ROG.SW)
• Home Depot (HD)
• Bank of America (BAC)
• LVMH (MC.PA)
• Coca-Cola (KO)
• Eli Lilly (LLY)
• Pfizer (PFE)
• AbbVie (ABBV)
• Novo Nordisk (NVO)
• Alibaba (BABA)
• ICBC (1398.HK)
• Pepsico (PEP)
• Toyota (TM)
• Broadcom (AVGO)
• ASML (ASML)
• BHP Group (BHP)
• Merck (MRK)
• Costco (COST)
• Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS)
• Shell (SHEL)
• Verizon (VZ)
• Cisco (CSCO)
• Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO)
• Astrazeneca (AZN)
• Walt Disney (DIS)
• Oracle (ORCL)
• Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
• Accenture (ACN)
• Novartis (NVS)
• McDonald (MCD)
• Comcast (CMCSA)
• Adobe (ADBE)
• L’Oréal (OR.PA)
• China Construction Bank (601939.SS)
• Intel (INTC)
• Nike (NKE)
• Danaher (DHR)
• Wells Fargo (WFC)
• Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS)
• Salesforce (CRM)
• Agricultural Bank of China (601288.SS)
• United Parcel Service (UPS)
• Philip Morris (PM)
• T-Mobile US (TMUS)
• Texas Instruments (TXN)
• QUALCOMM (QCOM)
• Linde (LIN)
• Royal Bank Of Canada (RY)
• Morgan Stanley (MS)
• Union Pacific Corporation (UNP)
• AMD (AMD)
• PetroChina (PTR)
• AT&T (T)
• Nextera Energy (NEE)
• China Mobile (0941.HK))
• Raytheon Technologies (RTX)
• TotalEnergies (TTE)
• Prosus (PRX.AS)
• Medtronic (MDT)
• CM Bank (3968.HK)
• Bank of China (601988.SS)
• Honeywell (HON)
• CATL (300750.SZ)
• Toronto Dominion Bank (TD)
• CVS Health (CVS)
• Lowe’s Companies (LOW)
• Amgen (AMGN)
• Sanofi (SNY)
• ConocoPhillips (COP)
• American Express (AXP)
• HSBC (HSBC)
• Charles Schwab (SCHW)
• Commonwealth Bank (CBA.AX)
• IBM (IBM)
• Meituan (3690.HK)
• Anthem (ANTM)