Businesses evolve with global trends, technological advancements, and shifts in consumer preferences. The change is sometimes so rapid that it takes only a few years for emerging companies to become global titans.
That's what happened between 2019 and now. While some corporate giants have retained their positions as the largest companies, one company that wasn't even in the top 20 in 2019 has catapulted to the top spot today.
Image source: Getty Images.
The five biggest companies in 2019
| Company | Market capitalization (03/31/2019) |
|---|---|
|
Microsoft (MSFT 0.46%) |
$905 billion |
|
Apple (AAPL -0.17%) |
$896 billion |
|
Amazon (AMZN 2.93%) |
$875 billion |
| $817 billion | |
| $494 billion |
Data source: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) global top 100 companies report, 2019.
Tech evidently ruled in 2019, but the tech supremacy that the world has witnessed since has been nothing short of spectacular. Artificial intelligence (AI) has rocked the world, with one company absolutely crushing it.
The five biggest companies in 2025
| Company | Market capitalization (08/13/2025) |
|---|---|
|
Nvidia (NVDA 0.28%) |
$4.43 trillion |
| Microsoft | $3.89 trillion |
| Apple | $3.46 trillion |
| Alphabet | $2.44 trillion |
| Amazon | $2.39 trillion |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Apple's flagship iPhones, high-margin services segment, and diversification into wearables have added tremendous value to its business since 2019.
Amazon's growth since 2019, meanwhile, has been driven by its leadership in e-commerce and aggressive expansion of cloud services through Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is the world's largest cloud computing platform today.
Cloud has also been a key growth driver for Alphabet and Microsoft since 2019. Yet, none of these companies have achieved what Nvidia has in six years.
NVDA Market Cap data by YCharts
Nvidia's unstoppable growth in AI has pushed its market cap by 4,000% since 2019 to over $4 trillion. That makes Nvidia the world's most valuable company today.
In the world of investing, tracking the largest companies isn't just about market capitalization, though. It reveals the dynamic forces shaping global markets, and which companies are positioning themselves to stay relevant in the long run.
