International finance is advancing at a breakneck pace. Although there are well-known companies, the truth is that their economic valuation fluctuates constantly, and it is very normal for the high-ranking positions of companies with greater market capitalization to change in a matter of months, weeks, or even days. The question is: what is the most valuable company in the world?
When we talk about market capitalization, or market cap, we refer to the monetary value of a company by multiplying the total number of its shares by the market value of each of them. This is why the jumps and falls in a company’s shares directly affect its ranking.
If we consider this metric to value companies worldwide, these are the top 10 as of January 2025, according to the site Companies Market Cap, which calculates the figures in real-time:
Before developing the list, it is worth mentioning the case of Nvidia and its significant decline in the stock market following the launch of DeepSeek, the Chinese open-source AI that surpasses OpenAI’s version. Its advanced reasoning, low development cost compared to ChatGPT, and the independence from Nvidia’s famous microchips for its operation have caused shareholders to question Western primacy in artificial intelligence.
This mistrust was reflected in the markets, where Nvidia dropped by 17%, Alphabet by 4%, and Microsoft by 2%, altering the international financial landscape. Therefore, from March 2024 to the present, the table has undergone several changes. Among them, Oprea and Eli Lilly left, and Tesla and TSMC joined.
Apple has moved from the second to the first position. The story of Apple Inc. dates back to 1976, when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded the company in Jobs’s garage in Los Altos, California, with the goal of producing and selling Apple I circuit boards, designed by Wozniak.
Over the years, Apple diversified into consumer electronics with the launch of the iPod in 2001 and the iTunes Music Store in 2003, changing its name to Apple Inc. in 2007.
Throughout its history, this company has been a pioneer in numerous innovative technologies and designs in the realm of personal computing and electronic devices. From the Apple I, it has developed several generations of computers, mobile devices such as the iPhone and the iPad, and digital services such as iTunes and the App Store, becoming one of the most recognizable and valued brands in the world. Over the years, it has also expanded with the purchase of NeXT, marking the return of Steve Jobs to the company in 1997, and Beats Electronics in 2014.
As of January 2025, Apple Inc. has a market capitalization of 3.63 trillion USD, with a share price of 253 USD.
Microsoft lost the lead and moved from the first to the second position. This company was founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Initially focused on software development for microcomputers, the company achieved massive success with the MS-DOS operating system in the 1980s. Five years later, Windows was launched, which would become synonymous with personal computing.
Over the years, Microsoft has diversified its products and services, including productivity tools like Microsoft Office, server platforms, and more recently, hardware with its Surface line, and the acquisition of Nokia’s mobile device division. Additionally, like other major companies in the sector, it has invested heavily in AI development and partnerships with other companies and applications to enhance its products.
Today, Microsoft is a multinational corporation with businesses ranging from software and services to hardware devices and gaming: Windows, Microsoft Office, the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers, the Xbox gaming platform, cloud services like Azure and Office 365, LinkedIn (which was acquired in 2016), and GitHub (acquired in 2018).
Nvidia Corporation was founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem as a company specializing in the design of graphics processing units (GPU) and artificial intelligence technologies. From its beginning, it has focused on graphics-accelerated computing, anticipating its crucial role in the future of computing and video games. Moreover, the company has expanded its influence into markets such as mobile computing, with its Tegra mobile processors, and in-vehicle entertainment.
Part of Nvidia’s success is due to its key role in the field of artificial intelligence, especially with the increased demand for processors for Large Language Models (LLM) systems such as ChatGPT. In this regard, the company has demonstrated its ability to meet the needs of new products, with a spirit of continuous innovation and business diversification, while maintaining its leadership in the graphics card market.
Although the company moved up one position in the ranking compared to March 2023, moving from fourth to third, throughout the last year, it had a golden period which lasted until the launch of DeepSeek, as we explained at the beginning of the article. However, recently it has experienced a significant drop in the value of its shares.
In fourth place and rising by two positions appears the giant of online commerce, Amazon, which took the place of Oprea, the French multinational specializing in managing nursing homes, rehabilitation clinics, and home care services. This year, Oprea is out of the top 10.
What can be said about this marketplace that you do not already know? It is the site that most Spaniards turn to when making an online purchase and one of the most visited platforms globally.
The history of Amazon is quite well known. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, starting as an online bookstore from a garage and has expanded to a vast range of products and services, including eCommerce, cloud computing with Amazon Web Services, digital streaming with Amazon Prime, and autonomous vehicle technology development with Zoox, among others.
In 2023, the company raised over 579,700 billion USD in sales in 2023 (14% more than the previous year), and achieved record numbers during the Christmas campaign, exceeding all growth expectations. Its success is also reflected in the results of brands selling on its website; according to a study by Jungle Scout, 19% of SMEs selling on Amazon generate more than 11,000 USD in monthly sales.
Moreover, as a good tech leader, Amazon continues to invest in innovation to enhance its service, focusing on AI.
Alphabet Inc., founded in 2015 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, rose by two positions compared to 2024.
It is a multinational company acting as a tech conglomerate and holding company for Google and other subsidiaries. Among its companies are Calico, Waymo, and Verily, focused on areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and autonomous vehicles.
Google and Alphabet Inc. maintain a subsidiary and parent company relationship, respectively, following Google’s corporate restructuring in 2015. This reorganization was carried out to clarify and make Google’s core business more accountable, while providing greater autonomy to its diversified companies, operating in different sectors from internet services. As a result, Alphabet became the parent company, with Google being its largest subsidiary, along with other businesses that were formerly part of Google.
Saudi Aramco, officially known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a state-owned oil and natural gas company representing the national oil enterprise of Saudi Arabia. Its history begins in 1933, when the Saudi Arabian government granted a concession to the Standard Oil of California (SoCal), marking the onset of an exploration resulting in the discovery of oil in 1938 at Dammam Well No. 7.
This company, which changed its name to Arabian American Oil Co. (Aramco) in 1944, underwent a significant change in its ownership structure when, between 1974 and 1980, the Saudi government acquired a 100% stake, and in 1988, it officially became Saudi Aramco. Over the years, it has maintained its status as one of the world’s largest oil producers, accounting for approximately 10% of global oil production. Additionally, in 2023 it was recognized as one of the world’s most innovative companies in the BGC ranking, which presents the names of the 50 companies that have strived to innovate using new technologies.
This year, it dropped one position, moving from position 5 to 6. Its valuation experienced a decline exceeding 11%, although it remains one of the most powerful companies globally.
You also know the history of Meta, right? Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology company founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg along with classmates from Harvard University. It started as a social network to connect people -initially, only Harvard students- online, but it was so successful that it ended up being the launchpad for one of the world’s most powerful business conglomerates.
In 2021, Zuckerberg changed Facebook’s name to Meta, as part of his long-term vision to build the “metaverse”, an immersive virtual environment where people can interact in three-dimensional spaces. However, in the short term, this bet did not yield the expected results.
Apart from the metaverse, Meta has also acquired other companies to expand its presence in the technology sector. Among the most prominent are Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus VR. This strategy has allowed Meta to strengthen its position as a leader in social networks and digital technology.
This year, the company started on the wrong foot after announcing the elimination of fact-checkers on all social platforms. This generated much criticism from users worldwide, as did its approach to the new Donald Trump administration.
However, this did not negatively impact its finances, but quite the opposite. Meta moved from the eighth to the seventh position among the world’s most valuable companies, improving its year-on-year valuation by 18.4%.
The company owned by Elon Musk, who also owns X, SpaceX, and Neuralink, did not rank among the top 10 most valuable companies in the world in 2024. However, it has had an excellent stock market year and already reaches a valuation of 1.32 trillion USD, placing it in eighth place in the 2025 ranking.
Tesla, Inc. is an American company founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, with the vision of accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy model through electric vehicles. Although Elon Musk was not one of the original founders, he joined the company in its early stages as a major investor and became the most visible face, playing a key role in its development and expansion.
In addition to manufacturing electric cars, Tesla also encompasses sustainable energy solutions such as energy storage systems with Powerwall and Powerpack batteries, and solar products like the Solar Roof. The company has a network of Superchargers allowing for rapid vehicle charging in various parts of the world. It operates in the United States, Europe, China, and Latin America.
Berkshire Hathaway is an American holding company, wholly or partially owning shares in various business groups. It was founded in 1839 by Oliver Chace as a textile factory called Valley Falls Company in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. Many things happened in between until, in 1962, millionaire Warren Buffett started buying shares of the company, eventually acquiring enough to end up controlling the company to radically change its direction.
While Buffett kept the business focus on textiles for some time, in 1967, the company expanded into the insurance industry, reinsurance, and other investments. The company’s last textile operations were in 1985.
Today, Berkshire Hathaway is primarily dedicated to investing in and acquiring companies with solid profit and management credentials, covering sectors like insurance, energy, rail transportation, and consumer goods. Among its most well-known subsidiaries are GEICO, Duracell, and Dairy Queen, in addition to having significant investments in corporations like Apple and Coca-Cola.
The company has revalued by 14.33% compared to 2024 and maintains its position on the table, occupying the ninth place.
In the 10th position is the second new entry on the list, which is TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), a Taiwanese company founded in 1987 by Morris Chang. Considered a pioneer in the semiconductor industry, TSMC introduced a revolutionary model by focusing exclusively on chip manufacturing for other companies, which enabled it to become the world’s first “pure-play” semiconductor manufacturer. Over its history, it has made advanced chips for companies like Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm.
TSMC plays a fundamental role in the technology supply chain, with its semiconductors found in devices ranging from smartphones and computers to cars and AI systems. The company operates manufacturing plants in Taiwan, the United States, and other countries, maintaining a strategic position to meet the growing demand for advanced chips.
Currently, this company has a valuation of 957 billion USD.
In 2024, the top 10 concluded with the multinational pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
Photo: ChatGPT4
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