The most valuable companies in the world

Claire Tourigny November 1, 2018

It’s no surprise that the following companies made the list: they’re all giants in their fields. But how much are the world’s most valuable companies *really* worth? And how did they get there?

The most valuable companies in the world

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Apple

I’m not much of an Apple gal myself, but even I have to respect what’s going on here. Currently worth over £780 billion, the American tech behemoth is by far the most valuable in the world. In 2018, it became the first publicly-traded US company to be valued at over 1 trillion USD, to no one’s surprise. Apple is the largest IT company in the world and the third largest mobile phone company, after Samsung and Huawei. Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple continues to dominate in both the hardware and software industries, with the groundbreaking iPhone, iPad and ever-popular series of Macs.

Amazon.com

It’s very difficult to avoid Amazon, the world’s largest ecommerce website. In addition to dominating the online retail world, the trillion-dollar company also owns Whole Foods, IMDb, Twitch.tv, and Zappos. Amazon is the largest internet company in the world, and the second largest employer in the US, after Walmart. The company started as an online bookstore in 1995 and has since expanded to selling, well, everything. But its roots are still visible, especially since the introduction of the Kindle e-reader in 2007. The founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, has been named the richest man in the world and is currently worth over £114.3 billion.

Alphabet

The multinational conglomerate Alphabet Inc has only been around since 2015, after the restructuring of its main subsidiary: Google. Google, on the other hand, has been around since 1998, and as a search engine has become the most visited website in the world. Google also manages several productivity apps and websites, like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs. Google has also joined the smartphone party, with its popular Pixel series of handsets. Created to narrow Google’s scope and allow greater autonomy to the other subsidiaries, Alphabet also owns Calico, CapitalG, Chronicle, DeepMind, Google Fiber, GV, Jigsaw, Loon, Sidewalk Labs, Verily, and Waymo. Alphabet is owned by former Google CEO Larry Page, and is currently valued at over £596.5 billion.

Microsoft

Known for Xbox, Office and, of course, Windows, Microsoft Corporation has spent the past 43 years sparking arguments between PC fans and Mac users. That, and becoming the largest software producer in the world. Currently worth over £584.7 billion, the company has produced three billionaires and thousands of millionaires since its IPO in 1986, including Bill Gates, who has been consistently considered one of the wealthiest people in the world since 1987. Microsoft is also known for its high number of mergers and acquisitions over the years, including Hotmail, Mojang, Skype, Nokia, and LinkedIn.

Facebook

Originally called “TheFacebook” and serving solely Harvard students, Facebook has quickly become the leader in social networking since it’s launch in 2004, surpassing MySpace in 2009. Now, Facebook has nearly 2.2 billion active monthly users. The company makes nearly all of its money from advertisements on its website, though recently, Facebook has been making attempts to join the hardware world with its first smart speaker. The company was already worth £80.7 billion when it held its IPO in 2012, the largest initial valuation to date. Recently, however, Facebook has been receiving massive criticisms due to security issues, causing a decline in the net worth of both the company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.