Just a handful of publicly-traded companies have managed to achieve $1 trillion or more in market capitalization—only six, to be precise.
We pull data from Companies Market Cap to find out which familiar names are breaking the 13-digit barrier—and who else is waiting in the wings.
Footnote: All data referenced is as of August 17, 2021.
The Major Players in the Game
Apple and Microsoft are the only two companies to have shattered the $2T market cap milestone to date, leaving others in the dust. Apple was also the first among its Big Tech peers to ascend to the $1 trillion landmark back in 2018.
| Company | Valuation | Country | Age of company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | $2.48T | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 45 years (Founded 1976) |
| Microsoft | $2.20T | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 46 years (Founded 1975) |
| Saudi Aramco | $1.88T | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 88 years (Founded 1933) |
| Alphabet (Google) | $1.83T | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 23 years (Founded 1998) |
| Amazon | $1.64T | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 27 years (Founded 1994) |
| $1.01T | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 17 years (Founded 2004) |
Facebook dipped in and out of the $1T+ club in July 2021, and continues its capricious movement. With just 17 years under its belt, it’s the youngest company ever to reach this valuation milestone—though not without some wild rides along the way.
State-owned oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco is the only non-American company to make the trillion-dollar club. This makes it a notable outlier, as American companies typically dominate the leaderboard of the biggest corporations around the world.
Who Else Might Join the Trillion-Dollar Club?
Companies with a market capitalization above $500 billion are also few and far between. Within this next list of six companies, the world’s most valuable automaker Tesla is another strong candidate to eventually join the Four Comma Club.
As per usual, analyst views on Tesla are quite varied. That said, some on Wall Street are predicting that Tesla might reach $3 trillion in market cap within the decade, owing to significant current and projected demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and driverless systems.
| Company | Valuation | Country | Age of company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla | $659B | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 17 years (Founded 2003) |
| Berkshire Hathaway | $655B | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 182 years (Founded 1839) |
| TSMC | $576B | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 34 years (Founded 1987) |
| Tencent | $537B | 🇨🇳 China | 23 years (Founded 1998) |
| Visa | $515B | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 63 years (Founded 1958) |
Visa, one of the pioneers of consumer credit in the United States, continues to innovate even 63 years after its founding. In attempts to expand the reach of its already massive payments ecosystem, Visa is experimenting with acquisitions, and even dipping its toes into cryptocurrency with some success.
Whether the next company to join the trillion-dollar club comes from the U.S., from the tech industry, or out of left field, it’s clear that it has some pretty big shoes to fill.