6 trillion-dollar companies: World's super-exclusive club of mega global businesses

TRILLION-DOLLAR COMPANIES: One trillion dollars is $1,000,000,000,000 — or 1 followed by 12 zeros. Certain businesses have accomplished a significant milestone in the vibrant environment of today's global economy: reaching trillion-dollar valuations. These remarkable businesses belong to a super-exclusive club, leading the way in success and influence, and having a huge impact around the world. These businesses range from ground-breaking technical pioneers to game-changing industry disruptors. Today, they are some of the most established and sophisticated organisations achieving phenomenal massive market valuations. Members of this elite group have one thing in common: they have commanding presence in their field. Here they are:

APPLE INC. | $3.02 TRILLION: The iPhone maker based in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, is today known for its consumer electronics, software, and online services. Apple made history on Friday (June 30, 2023) as the first company with a market value over $3 trillion. Forbes reported that Apple shares jumped more than 1% to a fresh all-time high of $192 in morning trading and are now up nearly 55% this year. The tech giant first reached a $3 trillion market capitalisation in January 2022, though it failed to close at that level back then. Now valued at $3.02 trillion, Apple remains the only $3 trillion company in history.

MICROSOFT CORP | $2.51 TRILLION: The tech company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 is now worth $2.51 trillion as of July 3, 2023. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, and personal computers. Headquartered in Washington, Microsoft has subsequently acquired over 225 companies, purchased stakes in 64 companies, and made 25 divestments. Of the companies that Microsoft has acquired, 107 were based in the United States. Its best-known software products are the Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. 

SAUDI ARAMCO | $2.080 TRILLION: Officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Group, or simply Aramco, the energy giant repeatedly achieved the largest annual profits in global corporate history. Founded in 1933 and based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, it is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue. On December 5, 2019, Saudi Aramco pulled off world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) after raising $25.6 billion. According to latest Tadawul data, Aramco had a market capilisation of SR7.80 trillion ($2.080 trillion) as of July 3, 11:51 AM UTC. It had 70,496 employees in 2022, and posted a revenue of $535.2 billion in 2022.

ALPHABET INC. | $1.53 TRILLION: The parent firm of Google, the most widely used search engine in the world, is official known as Alphabet. It also includes other companies like YouTube, Google Cloud, Waymo, and numerous others. Alphabet Inc’s market capitalisation (Class A shares) was valued at $1.53 trillion as of July 3, 2023, according to NASDAQ data. The share price has climbed from $57.75 on July 6, 2018 to $119.90 on July 3, 2023, a 107 per cent jump over 5 years.

AMAZON.COM INC | $1.34 TRILLION: Amazon, an e-commerce and cloud computing company, founded by Jeff Bezos, is one of the largest online retailers and provides various services, including Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and more. Its stock price jumped $85.53 on July 6, 2018 to $130.22 on July 3, 2023, a 52.25 per cent rise over the past 5 years.


NVIDIA | $1.05 TRILLION: Thanks to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, graphic processing units (GPU) maker NVIDIA, founded in 1993 by Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang, first touched the trillion-dollar market capitalisation mark on May 30, 2023, but dropped from the league after its stock price slid. This week, it once more achieved $1 trillion valuation, thanks to market enthusiasm for its work on the hardware supporting AI development. Its stock price hit $424.13 a share on July 3, 2023, thus crossing the $1 trillion market cap level on Monday, joining the super-exclusive club of mostly tech companies. Nvidia's shares have to hold above that price to keep that distinction.

KNOCKING ON TRILLION-DOLLAR CLUB’S DOOR: There are other companies that have surpassed — but not maintained a $1 trillion valuation. Tesla, founded on July 1, 2003, reached a $1 trillion valuation in October 2021, but has dropped out of the club as shares rise and fall. Tesla’s market cap stood at $876.81 billion on July 3, 2023. Meta (Facebook), led by CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, is another company who reached the valuation milestone, but like Tesla, the social media giant has seen its valuation fluctuate and now sits at $732.99 billion as of July 3, 2023.