The World's Top 50 Companies
Following are the world's largest companies based on market capitalization. Apple Inc., founded in 1976, ranks first in the list with a market value of over $900 billion, whereas Alphabet and Microsoft took the second and third places, respectively. Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, employs about 123,000 people (including over 76,000 in the United States) and operates approximately 500 retail stores in 22 countries. The company reported revenue (net sales) of $229 billion for its fiscal year 2017. Apple is responsible for creating about 2 million US jobs. Alphabet, based in Mountain View, California, is the second largest company in the world by market capitalization.
| Rank 2017 |
Rank 2018 |
Company | Country | Market capitalization (US$b, January 17, 2018) |
Market capitalization (US$b, January 17, 2017) |
| 1 | 1 | Apple | US | 911.1 | 630.9 |
| 2 | 2 | Alphabet | US | 788.8 | 562.9 |
| 3 | 3 | Microsoft | US | 695.4 | 486.0 |
| 5 | 4 | Amazon | US | 624.0 | 383.7 |
| 13 | 5 | Tencent Holdings | China | 550.2 | 243.8 |
| 4 | 6 | Berkshire Hathaway | US | 528.5 | 395.8 |
| 6 | 7 | US | 518.3 | 369.6 | |
| 14 | 8 | Alibaba | China | 470.8 | 239.5 |
| 8 | 9 | Johnson & Johnson | US | 394.9 | 312.1 |
| 9 | 10 | JPMorgan Chase | US | 392.0 | 300.4 |
| 15 | 11 | Industrial & Comm Bank of China | China | 376.8 | 231.4 |
| 7 | 12 | ExxonMobil | US | 372.9 | 357.8 |
| 17 | 13 | Bank of America | US | 325.2 | 228.7 |
| 11 | 14 | Wells Fargo | US | 314.6 | 272.6 |
| 26 | 15 | Wal-Mart Stores | US | 304.2 | 209.3 |
| 21 | 16 | Samsung Electronics | South Korea | 301.7 | 224.2 |
| 16 | 17 | Royal Dutch Shell | Netherlands | 296.6 | 229.6 |
| 30 | 18 | Visa | US | 276.4 | 189.9 |
| 18 | 19 | Nestle | Switzerland | 268.5 | 228.5 |
| 32 | 20 | China Construction Bank | China | 267.1 | 188.3 |
| 22 | 21 | Chevron | US | 251.4 | 218.9 |
| 23 | 22 | PetroChina Co Ltd | China | 235.9 | 217.4 |
| 25 | 23 | Anheuser-Busch InBev | Belgium | 234.2 | 212.8 |
| 39 | 24 | Home Depot | US | 233.3 | 165.9 |
| 20 | 25 | Procter & Gamble | US | 231.4 | 227.3 |
| 45 | 26 | UnitedHealth Group | US | 231.1 | 150.1 |
| 29 | 27 | Toyota Motor | Japan | 229.6 | 193.8 |
| 31 | 28 | Novartis | Switzerland | 227.4 | 188.9 |
| 12 | 29 | AT&T | US | 226.2 | 250.6 |
| 43 | 30 | Taiwan Semiconductor | Taiwan | 223.7 | 152.9 |
| 38 | 31 | HSBC Holdings | UK | 222.4 | 166.5 |
| 28 | 32 | Pfizer | US | 221.6 | 194.4 |
| - | 33 | Ping An Insurance Group | China | 217.7 | 94.0 |
| 46 | 34 | Agricultural Bank of China | China | 217.1 | 148.3 |
| 24 | 35 | Verizon Communications | US | 211.0 | 213.004 |
| 27 | 36 | Roche Holding | Switzerland | 210.5 | 202.8 |
| - | 37 | Boeing | US | 209.1 | 97.3 |
| 41 | 38 | Oracle | US | 208.1 | 160.8 |
| 34 | 39 | Intel | US | 207.7 | 174.2 |
| 19 | 40 | China Mobile | China | 207.6 | 227.4 |
| 40 | 41 | Citigroup | US | 204.8 | 163.5 |
| 44 | 42 | Cisco Systems | US | 203.7 | 150.7 |
| 33 | 43 | Coca-Cola | US | 199.5 | 178.1 |
| 35 | 44 | Comcast | US | 194.8 | 173.0 |
| 48 | 45 | Bank of China | China | 189.4 | 146.2 |
| - | 46 | Mastercard | US | 174.0 | 117.2 |
| 47 | 47 | PepsiCo | US | 169.5 | 147.3 |
| 37 | 48 | Merck | US | 169.0 | 168.7 |
| 36 | 49 | Walt Disney | US | 168.7 | 171.3 |
| - | 50 | AbbVie | US | 166.5 | 98.5 |
The World's Top 20 Companies by Revenue
Below is a list of the largest companies in the world in terms of total revenue. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., an American retail giant, is the largest company in the world with $485 billion in revenue. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, it employs 2.3 million people and serves over 250 million customers weekly through internet and 11,700 units in 28 countries.
| Rank | Company | Country | Revenue (US$bn, FY 2016) | Net Income (US$bn, FY 2016) |
| 1 | Wal-Mart | USA | $485.3 | $13.6 |
| 2 | State Grid Corporation | China | $301.4 | $12.5 |
| 3 | China Petroleum & Chemical | China | $255.7 | $7.0 |
| 4 | Toyota Motor | Japan | $236.7 | $19.3 |
| 5 | Volkswagen Group | Germany | $228.9 | $5.4 |
| 6 | Royal Dutch Shell | Netherlands | $213.0 | $4.2 |
| 7 | Berkshire Hathaway | USA | $222.9 | $24.1 |
| 8 | Apple | USA | $217.5 | $45.2 |
| 9 | PetroChina | China | $214.8 | $1.2 |
| 10 | ExxonMobil | USA | $197.5 | $7.8 |
| 11 | McKesson | USA | $196.5 | $2.0 |
| 12 | UnitedHealth Group | USA | $184.9 | $7.2 |
| 13 | BP plc | UK | $183.8 | $0.1 |
| 14 | CVS Health | USA | $177.5 | $5.3 |
| 15 | Samsung Electronics | South Korea | $174 | $19.3 |
| 16 | Daimler | Germany | $169.5 | $9.4 |
| 17 | General Motors | USA | $166.4 | $9.4 |
| 18 | AT&T | USA | $163.8 | $13.0 |
| 19 | Glencore | Switzerland | $152.9 | $0.94 |
| 20 | Ford Motor Company | USA | $151.8 | $4.6 |