World’s biggest companies: Aramco, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tesla, J&J, Tencent

MOST VALUABLE FIRMS: Finance gurus use certain metrics to value companies. Here, we base the top corporate rankings on market capitalisation — the dollar market value of a company’s outstanding shares of stock. While the list didn’t change much between 2020 and 2021, the rankings changed a bit in recent weeks, due to factors such as the pandemic and war. These are the world’s top firms by market cap, based on latest companiesmarketcap.com data:

SAUDI ARAMCO | $2.43 trillion: The energy giant recently overtook Apple Inc. as the world's most valuable company, propelled by a surge in oil prices. Aramco employs 66,800. It surpassed the California tech giant for the first time since 2020.

APPLE INC | $2.27 trillion: The iPhone maker is considered one of the largest companies, with 516 retail stores and around 147,000 employees. Earlier this year, Apple boasted a market value of $3 trillion, about $1 trillion more than Aramco's. Since then, however, Apple has fallen while Aramco gained. Apple remains the largest stock among US companies.

MICROSOFT | $1.941 trillion: Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates, is an information technology, software development, cloud solutions and consumer electronics company. Founded in 1975, the company is a pioneer leader in the field of personal computer software.

ALPHABET (GOOGLE) | $1.393 trillion: Alphabet Inc is the parent company of Google LLC and other subsidiary companies. Sergey Brin and Larry Page established this company in 1998. Google is the world’s leading the search engine, with a market value of 91.9% as of 2022. The company employs 135,000 people.

AMAZON | $1.059 trillion: The e-commerce colossus is one of the US tech firms grew with abandon during the pandemic, but have taken a hit from inflation, war, supply-line troubles. Amazon, the second-largest employer in the US, recently revealed that its ranks are overstaffed as the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 slowed.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY | $682.58 billion: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is one of the world’s most respected investors. In March, it bought up shares in Occidental Petroleum. In April Berkshire Hathaway bought a stake in HP valued at more than $4.2 billion.

TESLA | $650.78 billion: The company is the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer. It’s also into solar roof tiles, solar panels, and batteries. In recent years, Tesla has zoomed past the major US carmakers in value. It reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, buoyed by strong EV sales. In April, however, Tesla lost $126 billion amid CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter deal funding concerns.

META | $490.60 billion: Facebook’s parent Meta reported monthly active users (MAUs) at 2.94 billion as of March 31, 2022, a 3% jump year-over-year. A top company official, however, said hiring goals were being adjusted amid corporate belt-tightening.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON | $477.34 billion: Johnson & Johnson has endured the ups and downs of the market. Founded over 126 years ago, in the year 1886, it wasn't until 1959 – 73 years and two major acquisitions later – that J&J developed its significant presence in the pharmaceutical industry. The stock held steady in April as it increased its dividend for the 60th consecutive year. So far this year, the stock is up more than 8%. A strong sales growth for the healthcare giant is seen by analysts in the coming years.

UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC | $466.9 billion: The US-based multinational healthcare and insurance company is based in Minnesota. As a diversified company, it offers health care products and insurance services — through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. In its industry, it’s considered a behemoth and is considered a mature company. Despite its size, UnitedHealth continues to grow.

TSMC | $460.08 billion: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s products are used in PCs, wired and wireless communications devices, and automotive and industrial equipment. As the largest specialist producer of semiconductors, it has 57% of the foundry market share. As of 2020, the company had 56,000 employees. The company’s client list includes Apple, Qualcomm, and Nvidia.

VISA | $428.80 billion: The US multinational financial services company facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards. The company employs about 21,500 people.

TENCENT | $427.72 billion: Tencent Holdings Ltd., also known as Tencent, is a Chinese multinational tech and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest-grossing multimedia companies in the world. It's also China's — and the world's — biggest game company.

NVIDIA | $402.55 billion: The US tech company is engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the automotive and mobile computing industries. The firm has 22,473 employees as of 2022. It has partnered with Blizzard, Sony and Nasa.

EXXON MOBIL CORP. | $398.90 billion: The oil and gas company headquartered in Texas has a history that goes back to the mid-1800s. In its current form, the firm was founded in 1999 following the merger of Exxon and Mobil. It employs 63,000 people. Its value has risen alongside the S&P 500 Energy sector, whic has soared 39% this year, supported by the oil price rally.