As of January 2026, NVIDIA is the world's richest public company by market capitalization, with a valuation exceeding $4.5 trillion. Driven by dominance in AI data-center chips, NVIDIA has surpassed Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet to lead the top market capitalization, followed closely by Apple ($3.95T - $4.08T) and Alphabet.
NVIDIA is the largest company in the world, with a market cap of $4.56 trillion. NVIDIA is followed by Apple ($3.95 trillion), Alphabet ($3.83 trillion), Microsoft ($3.53 trillion), and Amazon ($2.49 trillion). Except for Berkshire Hathaway, all of the top 10 market cap companies are part of the technology sector.
"Big 5" can refer to different groups, but most commonly means the Big Five tech giants (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia) by market cap or the historic Big Five accounting firms before Arthur Andersen's collapse (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG, Arthur Andersen). Other contexts include the Big Five film studios or the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks, highlighting dominant companies in various sectors.
In the late 1990s, the Big 6 became the Big 5 when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers and Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers (later stylised as PwC). Five became four in 2001 after the insolvency of Arthur Andersen due to the firm's involvement in the Enron scandal.
Founded in 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) peaked at a valuation of over $10 trillion in today's dollars. Backed by government charters and global monopolies, the VOC controlled huge parts of the spice trade, giving it unmatched economic power in its time.
Microsoft stock's jump following a strong earnings report for its third fiscal quarter helped push the company past Apple to become the largest in the U.S. by market capitalization on Friday. Microsoft now has a market cap of $3.24 trillion, beating Apple's $3.07 trillion.
A 2019 study by Harvard Business Review found either Vanguard, BlackRock or State Street is the largest listed owner of 88% of S&P 500 companies. There is a perception that a few select companies own a vast majority of the stock market.
He hasn't earned those yet. To get all of the stock, he has to make Tesla worth roughly $8.5 trillion, which would earn Musk about $1 trillion. He will likely be a trillionaire before he earns any of that stock. All it would take is a successful SpaceX IPO, which Musk seemed to endorse on X in December.
The most profitable company in the world is Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco or just Aramco. Six of the top 10 are from the U.S., with the rest coming from China or Saudi Arabia.
The wealthiest 10% of U.S. households own approximately 93% of the stock market's value, a record concentration of wealth, with the top 1% holding over half of all stocks. This ownership is concentrated among the richest Americans, while the bottom half of households own a very small fraction, illustrating significant wealth inequality in stock market participation.
In finance, "FAANG" is an acronym for the shares of five major American technology companies: Facebook (now Meta Platforms) (META), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX), et Google (GOOG) (now Alphabet).
Currently, four companies have market caps above $3 trillion: Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).
Yes, absolutely, there are multiple trillion-dollar companies, with tech giants like Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet (Google) leading the list, often valued well into the multi-trillions, joined by others like Amazon, Meta, Broadcom, Tesla, and Berkshire Hathaway, reflecting the dominance of the tech sector in current market valuations.
Apple Is Richer Than All but 4 Countries. Apple's market capitalization reached $4.01 trillion as of November 21, 2025, making it wealthier than the entire economic output of nearly every country on Earth. Only four national economies exceed Apple's value as a publicly traded company.
The starting salary at Big 4 firms usually ranges from $55,000 to $70,000 in audit and tax, and from $70,000 to $90,000 in advisory and consulting. Pay at entry-level also varies by city, with higher compensation in financial hubs like New York and Chicago compared to smaller markets.
