Still, it's hard to say if the ranking will stick, as this isn't the first time the two companies went head-to-head for the title of most valuable publicly traded company. In 2020, it was Apple that surpassed Aramco when it hit a market valuation of $1.84 trillion, and held the position steady for almost two years.
The race will ultimately come down to whether more investors prefer the security of steady and solid cash and earnings thrown off by Apple, or the potential for greater growth in the cloud. Many will wager on both, a known known and an unknown known, but whichever company ends up as the most valuable will be an indicator of where tech is headed.
World’s most valuable company is no longer Apple
After companies in the technology sector, automotive companies appear most frequently among the 25 most valuable brands. Honda had revenue of $135.0 billion in its fiscal 2017, making it one of the world's biggest companies in any industry.
With annual revenue of $122.1 billion, GE is one of the world's largest corporations. While its brand also remains one of the world's most valuable, Interbrand lowered it by 26 percent from 2017 -- one of the largest brand value drops.
The value of a brand might be expected to rise with its visibility. Such logos as McDonald's arches, Apple's apple icon, and Amazon's "A" are seen daily by millions of people. IBM is perhaps less common in this regard. It has focused heavily on innovation in recent decades, and received over 9,000 patents in 2017, more than any other U.S. company. In fact, IBM has been a patent leader for the last 25 years.
Intel is best known as a manufacturer of processors and semiconductors for use in personal computers and business operations. The company continues to thrive as the world becomes increasingly technologically dependent. Intel's annual profits have averaged around $10 billion per year in each of the last three years.
McDonald's has maintained its dominance as the world's most popular fast food chain for decades. While it has fine-tuned its menu to adjust for changing tastes, including adding salads and other healthier foods, as well as a popular line of coffee, the company's success comes from its brand recognition and the popularity of the same items it has had on its menu for years. McDonald's employs over 230,000 people worldwide.
Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is used all over the world. At last count, the company had over 2.2 billion users, or about 30 percent of the world's population. Facebook has continued to ensure its success by purchasing social media and messaging companies like WhatsApp and Instagram.
The Mercedes-Benz brand has been around for over 90 years, but the company's history goes back even further, to the earliest days of the automobile. Today, the German company is one of the most prestigious names in luxury automobiles, selling over 300,000 cars in the U.S. in 2017.
Toyota is one of the largest and most successful automakers in the world, selling over 10 million vehicles each year. In the United States, the Japanese company has been able to rely on the popularity of long-running brands like the Camry and the Corolla.
Coca-Cola is today one of the most popular beverages on the planet. According to its latest annual report, of the 60 billion servings of beverages consumed worldwide every day, Coca-Cola-owned brands accounted for about 2 billion.
U.S. giants dominate every corner of the tech sector, and each still has its niche. While Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are the respective leaders in phones, search, social, and retail, Microsoft is the leader in software. The company, founded in 1975, is visible worldwide through its MSN brand and Windows operating system. Some estimates put the number of PCs with Windows at over 1 billion.
Amazon is one of the world's most valuable brands and also this year's fastest growing, with brand value growth of 56 percent. According to Interbrand, in an increasingly service-driven economy, the top-performing brands continue to be those offering the best access to products and services. No company has adopted this approach more successfully or widely than Amazon.
While Google trails Apple in brand value, the tech giant's reach and impact on society is unrivaled. With little resistance from regulators, Google has over the years approached monopoly status in multiple markets. The world's biggest video platform, YouTube, the world's most widely adopted smartphone software, Android, and one of the world's largest distributors of advertising, DoubleClick, are all owned by Google -- to name just a few.
Apple is one of the most influential and recognisable brands in the world, responsible for the rise of the smartphone with the iPhone. Valued at over $2 trillion in 2021, it is also the most valuable technology company in the world.
A year ago, Facebook was among the five most valuable U.S. companies, with a market cap over $1 trillion. Now the company, renamed Meta, is worth about $270 billion, no longer in the top 20 most-valuable U.S. companies.
That the top 10 largest companies in the world is a completely different list to the top 10 most valuable companies reveals something simple: the former is a list dominated by old economy giants, and the latter by new economy behemoths. Bricks versus clicks; commodities versus bits.
The company's first product was Apple I, a personal computer hand-built by Steve Wozniak (see Figure 1 below). For its first 30 years, the company was called Apple Computer Inc. until in 2007 it dropped 'computer' to reflect its ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market. Currently, Apple is the largest information technology company by revenue and the world's most valuable company. As of 2021, employing 154 thousand people, the company had over 500 stores worldwide, including 271 stores in the United States.
Apple is committed to the highest standards of social responsibility across our worldwide supply chain. We insist that all of our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. Our actions - from thorough site audits to industry-leading training programs - demonstrate this commitment. " (apple.com)
Nevertheless, the company does not seem to suffer the consequences. Its strong brand stands for high prices and stylish technological products. According to the most recent data from 2021, Apple was one of the top 10 consumer electronics companies and best brands in the world. What is more, the company's revenue is constantly growing. From 108.2 billion dollars in 2011, it grew up to 365.82 billion dollars in 2021. Therefore, it can be concluded that the ethical issues did not damage Apple's brand image and did not put off its consumers.
This past August Apple became the most valuable corporation in the world based on market capitalization, surpassing every firm in the technology industry and every other industry! As a consumer products company, its prolonged growth spurt is even more amazing because it has continued through economic times when consumers are reluctant to spend what little they have. Considering that Apple was near bankruptcy in 1997, its story is both extraordinary and noteworthy.
His other business ventures have included starting a boutique, private investment bank that boasts some of the highest levels of liquidity and solvency in the world, and investing in companies from Colombia to Uzbekistan. He also serves on numerous Boards of Directors, and previously served as Chairman of company listed on a major stock exchange.
Tech companies have experienced enormous growth in recent decades, as their innovative products and disruptive business models have transformed the way we now live. These technology leaders have historically been some of the best investments to own and many of them are now among the largest and most valuable companies in the world.
Though many people may not be familiar with it, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, is one of the most important companies in the world. It manufactures chips that go into many different electronic devices such as iPhones, computers and automobiles. The chips are designed by other companies and manufactured by TSMC. An investment in the company comes with additional geopolitical risk because of its location in Taiwan and the tension that exists with China. Because chip manufacturing requires massive upfront investments, experts say it will be difficult for competitors to catch up with TSMC any time soon.
Samsung was founded in 1969 and has become one of the leading providers of electronics in the world. In 2021, Samsung was the leader in global television set market share for the 16th consecutive year with a share of nearly 30 percent. The company also produces other appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators, while also offering air conditioners and smartphones. Samsung is also one of three major companies that manufactures memory chips that are used in a wide variety of end-products including phones, computers, data centers and cars.
The largest company in the world can fluctuate day to day, even minute by minute, depending what measurement is used. Tesla began 2022 as the world's fifth largest company by market cap and ended the year in 11th place after their CEO Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter.
Is Apple still ahead of the pack? Or did Microsoft or Google manage to pull it off? Did Tesla, perhaps, race in front of everyone? And what about Amazon and Facebook (pardon, Meta)? These giants have been in a tight race for the title of the most valuable publicly traded company for quite some time. As of September 2, 2022, not long after they had reported second-quarter earnings, the winner was still Apple.
Yet the stock value of a company can change quickly. Apple itself has experienced several setbacks. Microsoft dethroned it as the most valuable enterprise in the world a few times, most recently in October last year (and Amazon did beat both of them for the top slot in January 2019), but its dominance did not last long. On January 3 of 2022, Apple became the first company ever to surpass $3 trillion market value. That did not last long either, but Apple has remained ahead of its archrival since then. 2ff7e9595c
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