A company’s market capitalization is an essential metric that is used by investors across the globe to assess a company’s size and the market valuation of its outstanding shares. Often termed as ‘market cap’, the figure indicates a company’s overall size and rank in the market.
The most valuable company in the world is Microsoft Corporation, which means it has the highest market capitalization, as on April 5, 2024, followed by Apple Inc. The two companies have been longtime rivals, with the former overtaking the latter as the most valuable company in the world earlier this year in January 2024. Prior to this, Microsoft had surpassed Apple as the most-valued company in 2018 and 2021.
It must be noted that the world’s seven most valued companies have market capitalizations of over $1 trillion each.
Largest 15 Companies by Market Cap in April 2024
| Name | Stock Symbol | Sector | Market Cap (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Corporation | MSFT | Technology | 3.105 trillion |
| Apple Inc | AAPL | Technology | 2.606 trillion |
| NVIDIA Corporation | NVDA | Technology | 2.114 trillion |
| Saudi Arabian Oil Company | 2222.SAR | Energy | 1.954 trillion |
| Alphabet Inc. | GOOGL | Technology | 1.879 trillion |
| Amazon.com Inc | AMZN | Consumer Cyclicals | 1.869 trillion |
| Meta Platforms | META | Technology | 1.302 trillion |
| Berkshire Hathaway | BRK.A | Consumer Non-Cyclicals | 898.7 billion |
| Eli Lilly and Company | LLY | Healthcare | 691.9 billion |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) | TSM | Technology | 629.9 billion |
| Broadcom Inc. | AVGO | Technology | 610.6 billion |
| JPM | Financial | 563.5 billion | |
| Novo Nordisk A/S | NVO | Healthcare | 557.3 billion |
| Visa Inc. | V | Technology | 550.5 billion |
| Tesla Inc. | TSLA | Consumer Cyclicals | 544.9 billion |
Market capitalization doesn’t always tell investors the whole story, so here’s some additional information about the world’s biggest companies, as of April 2024.
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)
- Market Cap: $3.11 trillion
- Revenue (TTM): $227.6 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $158.9 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 29.72%
- Year Founded: 1975
- Exchange: NASDAQ
Microsoft Corporation is involved largely in the development and support of software, services, devices and solutions worldwide.
The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Microsoft 365 Copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.
The company has won the Best Global Culture 2024 award in 2024, while ranking fifth in the JUST 100 rankings in the year.
Apple Inc (AAPL)
- Market Cap: $2.61 trillion
- Revenue (TTM): $385.7 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $173.7 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 28.99%
- Year Founded: 1976
- Exchange: NASDAQ
The California-headquartered tech giant manufactures and markets the renowned iPhone, iPad and Macintosh computers, among other paragon consumer electronics products. It is the first and a longer-lasting company to have hit the $1 trillion market cap mark, and subsequently the $2 trillion and $3 trillion marks.
In June 2023, Apple announced its mixed-reality headset called the ‘Apple Vision Pro’, which opened for purchase in January 2024, in the US.
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)
- Market Cap: $2.11 trillion
- Revenue (TTM): $60.9 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $44.3 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 78.74%
- Year Founded: 1993
- Exchange: NASDAQ
NVIDIA provides graphics, compute and networking solutions. It designs and supplies GPUs used in supercomputers and workstations finding applications across multiple fields, along with developing APIs and system-on-a-chip units (SoCs) for the auto industry, while also supplying AI hardware and software.
In March 2024, NVIDIA’s m-cap jumped past $2 trillion. It only took 180 days for the company’s m-cap to rocket from $1 trillion to $2 trillion, as opposed to over 500 days taken for Apple and Microsoft, each.
Saudi Arabian Oil Company (2222)
- Market Cap: $1.95 trillion
- Revenue (TTM): $495.3 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $282 billion
- Year Founded: 1933
- Exchange: TADAWUL
Also known as Saudi Aramco, Aramco is the national oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Currently, it is the world’s third-largest company by revenue, and tops the chart of largest daily oil production of all oil-producing companies.
Its shares began trading on the Tadawul stock exchange on December 11, 2019, and exceeded the USD 2 trillion mark right on the second day of trading.
Alphabet Inc (GOOGL)
- Market Cap: $1.88 trillion (as of April 5)
- Revenue (TTM): $307.4 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $175 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 20.02%
- Year Founded: 1998 (Google), 2015 (Alphabet)
- Exchange: NASDAQ
Alphabet Inc is a holding company created in October 2015 to restructure Google by moving subsidiaries from Google to Alphabet, thereby narrowing the search engine’s scope.
Google has been referred to as the ‘most powerful company in the world’, thanks to its dominant position in the market data collection, and technological advantages in AI. That’s just one of Alphabet’s many widely used products, which also includes the email service ‘Gmail’, and the video site ‘YouTube’.
Amazon.com Inc
- Market Cap: $1.87 trillion (as of April 5)
- Revenue (TTM): $574.8 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $270 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 14.44%
- Year Founded: 1994
- Exchange: NASDAQ
Amazon engages in providing e-commerce, cloud computing, and advertising services, among others. It also sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, along with producing media content.
It became the world’s 12th most-visited website in October 2023, with over 80% traffic coming from the US. You can practically buy anything on the online retailer’s platform. Over 200 million users have Amazon Prime service globally.
Meta Platforms (META)
- Market Cap: $1.3 trillion
- Revenue (TTM): $134.9 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $108.9 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 23.89%
- Year Founded: 2004
- Exchange: NASDAQ
Formerly named as Facebook, Meta Platforms was rebranded in October 2021 to reflect the company’s focus on building the metaverse. The company now owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, among other major products.
It won the award for ‘Best Company Compensation and Best Company Perks & Benefits’ in 2023. Advertising amounts to a whopping 97.8% of the company’s revenue, as per 2023 data.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
- Market Cap: $898.71 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $364.5 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $123.2 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 15.39%
- Year Founded: 1955
- Exchange: NYSE
The conglomerate has its roots in multiple avenues including insurance, freight rail transportation, and utility, with the insurance business being its capital source.
Berkshire Hathaway is among the largest American-owned private employers in the US, The company’s class A shares have the highest per-share price of any public company in the world, currently trading at USD 628,420 per piece.
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY)
- Market Cap: $691.86 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $34.1 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $27 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 46.02%
- Year Founded: 1876
- Exchange: NYSE
The Indianapolis-headquartered pharmaceutical major was founded by a chemist, Colonel Eli Lilly. It is currently spread over 18 countries. The company is known for its clinical depression drugs Prozac and Cymbalta, while its primary revenue drivers are the diabetes drugs Humalog and Trulicity.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM)
- Market Cap: $630.43 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $70.4 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $38.3 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 30.54%
- Year Founded: 1987
- Exchange: NYSE
The tech giant manufactures and designs semiconductors, and is the world’s second most valuable semiconductor company, while the largest in Taiwan. The central government is its largest shareholder.
TSMC was the first Taiwanese company to be listed on the NYSE in 1997, with a fabled list of customers including Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA, among others.
Broadcom Inc (AVGO)
- Market Cap: $610.56 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $38.9 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $28.9 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 38.55%
- Year Founded: 1961 (HP Associates), 2005 (Avago Technologies)
- Exchange: NASDAQ
The tech company operates in two segments – Semiconductor Solutions and Infrastructure Software. An estimated 79% of Broadcom’s revenue came from semiconductor-based products in 2023. The company started as HP Associates in 1961.
In May 2022, it announced plans to acquire VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction for $69 billion, the acquisition closing in November last year.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM)
- Market Cap: $563.54 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $146 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 16.49%
- Year Founded: 1799 (Chase Manhattan Company), 1871 (J.P. Morgan & Co), 2000 (merger of two predecessor firms)
- Exchange: NYSE
JPMorgan Chase & Co is the largest bank in the United States and the largest bank in the world by market capitalization. It is also the world’s largest investment bank by revenue.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NOVO)
- Market Cap: $558.91 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $33.71 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $28 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 39.13%
- Year Founded: 1923
- Exchange: NYSE
The Danish giant manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products, specializing in diabetes care and devices. The company is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
It is the largest pharmaceutical company in Denmark.
Visa Inc (V)
- Market Cap: $550.46 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $33.4 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $32.6 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 12.49%
- Year Founded: 1958
- Exchange: NYSE
The payment technology company is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions across over 200 countries and territories through Visa-branded credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards.
It was founded by Bank of America in 1958 under the ‘BankAmericard’ credit card program. Visa is the second-largest card payment organization in the world.
Tesla Inc (TSLA)
- Market Cap: $544.95 billion
- Revenue (TTM): $96.8 billion
- Gross Profit (TTM): $17.7 billion
- Five-Year Annualized Return: 56.49%
- Year Founded: 2003
- Exchange: NASDAQ
The EV manufacturer was incorporated as Tesla Motors in July 2003, with Elon Musk joining as its largest shareholder in February 2004. Tesla’s Model 3 is the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car globally, and became the 1st electric car to sell 1 million units worldwide in June 2021.
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How to Find the Largest Companies in the World
You can find the world’s largest companies by market capitalization easily using Investing Pro. Here are the steps:
- Click on the Investing Pro Screener tool.
- Select ‘Market Cap’ as a filter parameter on the Screener page. You can also remove other parameters like Revenue or Dividend (if present) from under Filters, in order to make your selection criteria crisp.
- You can then see the list of all the companies having the largest market caps, or the largest companies in the world, in descending order.
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Largest Market Cap FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Q. What does market cap indicate?
From a purely financial standpoint, market capitalization majorly indicates the size and success of a corporation. It is the total value of a company’s outstanding shares multiplied with the current price of each equity share.
Market cap is even necessary to put a stock’s price into context. A cheap share price doesn’t necessarily make a stock cheap. A company could have a share price of $3 — but if there are 1 billion shares outstanding, the stock may be far more expensive than the per-share price suggests.
Q. How does market cap increase?
As market cap is calculated by multiplying the total number of a company’s outstanding shares and the price per share, two factors can alter the figure.
It can either be significant changes in the stock price or if the company issues excess shares or repurchases it, changing the number of outstanding shares.
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