The most valuable companies in the world have grown to impressive heights in recent years, with 10 publicly traded companies reaching market capitalizations of roughly $1 trillion or more. All but one of the companies come from the tech sectorwith many offering products and services that consumers use every day. Several of them also made it onto Bankrate’s list of top performing stocks.
The top spot has gone back and forth between Apple and Nvidia in recent months, with Microsoft also consistently in the top three, behind a business boom driven by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia first joined the $1 trillion club in May 2023 and since then has added more than $2 trillion in additional market value.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway joined the trillion-dollar ranks in August 2024 and is the only non-tech company on the list. Tesla rejoined the list in November 2024 after the company’s shares soared following the election of former President Donald Trump, whom Tesla CEO Elon Musk strongly supported. Broadcom was the most recent addition to the list after topping the $1 trillion mark in December 2024.
A company’s market capitalization is equal to the total value of its outstanding shares. Market cap can be calculated by multiplying a company’s stock price by its shares outstanding. For example, a $10 stock with 1 billion shares outstanding would have a market cap of $10 billion.
Market cap is used to measure what a company is worth at a given time.
Here are the largest publicly traded companies and members of the trillion-dollar club.
*Market cap data as of Dec. 13, 2024.
Apple designs and makes a variety of consumer tech products and has one of the best-known brands in the world. Apple generated more than $200 billion in iPhone sales during its fiscal 2023 and total sales reached $383 billion. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is one of the company’s largest shareholders and Buffett has repeatedly praised the tech giant’s business, though he slashed Berkshire’s stake in 2024.
Microsoft is best known for its suite of software offerings including Microsoft Office. The company generated nearly $212 billion in sales during its 2023 fiscal year. Microsoft closed its $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard in October 2023. Microsoft is also the largest backer of ChatGPT-owner OpenAI.
Semiconductor company Nvidia crossed the trillion-dollar mark in May 2023, and quickly climbed to the top spot as investors bid up its shares in anticipation of a sustained boom in AI. Nvidia designs advanced chips that are used in AI systems and its shares are up more than 170 percent year to date in 2024. It ended 2023 up a remarkable 246 percent from the start of the year. The company generated about $27 billion in revenue during its fiscal 2023 and is expected to top $120 billion in sales in 2024.
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and has also built a sizable cloud business in Amazon Web Services. Amazon generated total sales of roughly $575 billion in 2023, including more than $90.8 billion from AWS. Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos was the second-richest person in the world as of December 2024, according to Bloomberg.
Alphabet is the parent company of search giant Google and generates the majority of its over $307 billion in revenue from online advertising. Google also has a cloud business, owns YouTube and has a variety of other ventures it classifies as “other bets.”
Social media giant Meta Platforms rejoined the trillion-dollar club in January 2024, but it’s no stranger to the list. Meta previously hit a $1 trillion market cap back in 2021, when it was still known as Facebook. Meta generated nearly $135 billion in total revenue in 2023 and its stock share price jumped nearly 189 percent that same year. In addition to being the parent company of Facebook, Meta also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, and is one of several tech giants betting big on artificial intelligence.
Tesla is an electric vehicle maker run by Elon Muskthe richest person in the world as of December 2024, according to Bloomberg. The company has big ambitions in transportation and artificial intelligence, and recently announced plans for an autonomous fleet of robotaxis and robovans.
Broadcom designs, develops and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions and has benefitted from the boom in AI spending. The company generated $51.6 billion in revenue during its fiscal 2024, boosted by 220 percent growth in AI revenue. Broadcom’s stock surged following its fourth-quarter 2024 results, pushing its market cap past $1 trillion.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the largest semiconductor foundry in the world and has a dominant position in manufacturing the most advanced chips for customers such as Nvidia and Apple. The company is looking to expand its global presence outside of Taiwan to places including the U.S. and Germany as it looks to limit its potential geopolitical risk from China.
Berkshire Hathaway is the conglomerate run by legendary investor Warren Buffett. The company has interests in a wide array of industries including insurance, railroads, retailing and manufacturing. Berkshire’s investment portfolio includes stakes in companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, American Express and Chevron.
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