It was just 20 years ago that energy and industrial stalwarts ExxonMobil and General Electric were the world’s most valuable companies when measured by market cap, with values of $392 billion and $375 billion, respectively. In the two decades since, there’s been a paradigm shift, and technology leads the field.
The companies topping the list need little introduction. AI chipmaker Nvidia heads the pack at $4.3 trillion as of this writing, hitting record highs multiple times this year. Cloud and software specialist Microsoft is also within striking distance of a new record high, worth $3.8 trillion. Rounding out this tech triad is iPhone maker Apple at $3.4 trillion.
With a market cap of $2.4 trillion, it seems inevitable that search and cloud titan Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) is on the fast track for membership in the $3 trillion club. A combination of market domination, speedy growth, and the wildcard of artificial intelligence (AI) should provide the tailwinds the company needs to join this exclusive society.