Biggest Corps Feature Image

Texas Company in Top 10 Biggest Companies

Spread the love

In the new year, Apple surpassed Samsung, becoming the world’s largest smartphone maker for the first time in the last ten years. 

With this in mind, City Index reveals the world’s biggest companies today by market cap, and how the landscape of corporate giants has changed in the last 20 years. In an era rife with smartphones and AI, it’s no shock that technology dominated the stock market in 2023, with seven technology companies including Apple, Amazon, and Tesla occupying the top 10. 

Highlights from the research:

  • Apple was the world’s biggest company in 2023 – worth $3.03 trillion, followed by Microsoft ($2.51 trillion)
  • Microsoft was the world’s biggest company in 2000, worth $586 billion (equating to $1.03 trillion in 2023)
  • IBM was the biggest company in 1980, with a market cap of $34.6 billion (equating to $128.12 billion in 2023)
  • The Oil and Gas sector dominated the market throughout the 1980s, however from 2000 onwards, the Technology industry produced the most valuable companies.

The full dataset is available here


The top 10 biggest companies of today:

Rank

Company

Industry

Market cap (billion USD)

1

Apple

Technology

$3,030.00

2

Microsoft

Technology

$2,510.00

3

Saudi Aramco

Oil & Gas

$2,080.00

4

Alphabet (Google)

Technology

$1,520.00

5

Amazon

Technology/Retail

$1,340.00

6

NVIDIA

Technology

$1,050.00

7

Tesla

Automotive

$886.89

8

Berkshire Hathaway

Diversified

$753.13

9

Meta (Facebook)

Technology

$733.11

10

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Technology

$534.98

City Index can reveal that Apple is the most valuable company in history, having a market cap of $3.03 trillion. Apple was founded in 1976 and went public in 1980. Only in 2011 did it become the world’s most valuable company for the first time, with a value of $350 billion. It replaced ExxonMobil at the top. It was the biggest company in the world for most of the 2010s, and in 2018 became the first US company to surpass $1 trillion in value. It then surpassed $2 trillion two years later. Currently, with its $3.03 trillion value, it accounts for 11% of the GDP of the US.1

Microsoft was the second-biggest company in 2023, with a market cap of $2.51 trillion, thanks to its market-leading Microsoft Azure cloud computing services and its stake in OpenAI. However, the products that saw it dominate in 2000 – including Windows and Office – are still a big part of its revenues. Microsoft was also the world’s most valuable company in 2000, adjusted for inflation, it is worth over 3 times that today ($2.51 trillion).

Remember, traders can go long or short on the biggest stocks and global indices using spread bets or CFDs with City Index. 


1. Apple’s contribution to the US economy was calculated using the company’s current value of 3.03 trillion divided by the GDP of the US (27.61) according to https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

2.  Microsoft Antitrust Case https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/microsoft-antitrust-case/ 


Methodology:

  1. City Index sought to establish the most valuable companies from 1980, 2000, and 2023.

  2. They gathered historical data, compiling information on the top 10 companies for each year.

  3. Market cap/Revenue per company for each year was obtained or inferred by historical data either from their archives or from readily available archives.

  4. Market cap values were cross-referenced and changed when needed by multiple readily available sources.

  5. Analysis was conducted on the top companies of each year to assess their performance and determine the factors contributing to their sustained dominance. Sources and reasons can be found in individual sheets in the data.

Data is correct as of 21st August 2023 and is subject to change.

See More News on TWiT