Technology dominates the 100 biggest companies in the world

Data that revealed details on the 100 biggest companies in the world, showed that 20 of them belong to technology companies.

Data compiled by Visual Capitalist using CompaniesMarketcap.com has shared insight regarding the biggest companies of last year. Companies that will also shape much of what we see across the new year.

Overall 2022 was a rocky one, many are still suffering the aftermath of Covid and rising cost pressures are seeing more people being careful with their cash. While a few companies have managed to secure a year of growth, many have witnessed declines in their market shares.

Biggest companies in the world

The world’s largest public company will probably come as no surprise. Apple tops the charts with a massive valuation of $2.3 trillion. Despite a tech downturn in 2022 Apple has managed to prove itself resilient at the top. A huge part of this success is down to consumer demand for iPhones which generated around half of its total revenue.

Following behind Apple is another tech company, Microsoft. The year of 2022 was a slower one for Microsoft due to lower demand for personal computers, likely triggered by rising inflation prices. Despite this, Microsoft still secured a $1.9 trillion valuation. Apple and Microsoft now make up two of the four companies that fill the trillion-dollar market.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco is the third company in the trillion list, which is the only non-US company featured in the top four but also the only company that isn’t from the technology sector. The holding company of Google, Alphabet makes the final trillion-dollar company at $1.2 trillion.

Technology dominance

Of the 100 largest public companies in the world, 62 of them are headquartered in the US. Across all sectors, technology appears frequently to create a combined market value of $9.2 trillion. Which amounts to around 31% of the total market value of the 100 largest companies in the world. So, despite the tech downturn in 2022, the technology industry remains strong.

While these figures are huge, 2022 still marks a downturn for many companies. Ten of the largest companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla all saw their market value decline. Tesla saw 68.9% of its market cap lost. These losses point to falling demand, especially from the market in China, and controversy surrounding CEO Elon Musk with his take over of social media platform Twitter.

While the top spots are dominated by big names, others are showing promising growth. NVIDIA was placed 24th in 2021 but finished 2022 as the 11th largest company globally. Others, however, have seen a major fall, in 2021 Meta had a top ten position sitting at 6th. Yet last year it ranked as the 26th biggest. Meta had a rough year when it suffered the loss of 11,000 jobs.

With a new year underway, time will tell if this year proves to be turbulent one or one for renewed growth.