The World’s Most Valuable Companies: Trillion-Dollar Stocks

The world’s most valuable companies are all worth more than $1 trillion by market cap.

You probably use their products every day – even if you don’t know the company behind the brand name.

While most of these top companies are American, not all of them are. More importantly, many of these trillion-dollar giants are plays on artificial intelligence (“AI”) or leaders in Big Tech.

And the value of their stocks has soared in recent years due to those huge AI investments…

That’s one reason the S&P 500 stock index has performed so well. These stocks are heavily weighted in it. The S&P 500 has risen by double-digit percentages from 2023 to 2025.

Here are the world’s largest companies by market cap (that is, the total value of their outstanding shares)…

The 10 Largest Companies in the World by Market Cap

Data as of January 15, 2026

1. Nvidia (NVDA)

Nvidia is the semiconductor name behind some of the most powerful chips (such as H200 and Blackwell chips) used in AI data centers and applications. It rocketed to the top of this list in a few years, surpassing the trillion-dollar level in May 2023 before surging to the first rank in July 2025.

2. Alphabet (GOOGL)

Alphabet is the company behind search titan Google, phone brand Android, and streaming platform YouTube. It’s also responsible for Google Cloud Platform, where it has made a massive investment in data centers. It features a variety of other “moonshot” investments, such as self-driving car company Waymo.

3. Apple (AAPL)

Apple is a consumer-electronics giant – and an unstoppable brand. It’s a decent bet that you’re reading this article on one of its iPhones or iPad tablets. Apple is planning to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. over the next few years to build up its AI expertise, among other things. But that hasn’t stopped legendary investor Warren Buffett from paring his company’s stake in Apple.

4. Microsoft (MSFT)

While Windows, Xbox, and gaming software are big parts of this company, Microsoft isn’t just about games. It’s investing tens of billions of dollars to build out AI data centers, too. Along with Alphabet and Amazon, Microsoft is one of a handful of “hyperscalers”… the Big Tech companies that are able to invest at scale to meet high AI demand. And it’s one of the big investors in OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT and other AI models.

5. Amazon (AMZN)

You likely know Amazon for its namesake e-commerce site or its Amazon Prime subscription service. So it might be easy to overlook Amazon Web Services (“AWS”). AWS helps power AI apps and cloud computing, allowing its clients to build websites and more. And Amazon is now investing heavily in more AI infrastructure… setting up the company to be a bigger player in the AI space (and boosting its stock).

6. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM)

Taiwan Semiconductor is the world’s largest semiconductor foundry. It manufactures chips for the electronic gadgets we use every day… making it crucial to other top-tier players such as Nvidia and Apple. To ride the growing AI wave, Taiwan Semiconductor is boosting its 2026 capital expenditures by 30% to 40% above 2025 levels. That’s an estimated range of $52 billion to $56 billion. Plus, it’s planning $165 billion in investments in the U.S.

7. Broadcom (AVGO)

Broadcom is another semiconductor firm that has enjoyed a surge in business from the AI boom. For fiscal 2025, the company’s revenue soared 24%, while its net income climbed a stunning 292%. And in the fourth quarter, AI semiconductor revenue led the way, rising 74% year over year.

8. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Saudi Aramco”)

You might not know Saudi Aramco by name. It was the world’s largest IPO ever – however, it doesn’t make the list of largest American IPOs, because it’s a Saudi company and isn’t listed in the U.S. Aramco produces crude oil and natural gas. But even Aramco is investing in AI… In October, it announced that it’s taking a significant minority stake in the Saudi-backed AI company Humain. And it’s planning to increase natural gas production more than 60% by 2030 to meet AI data-center demand.

9. Meta Platforms (META)

Meta Platforms is best known as a social media giant. It’s the name behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – so there’s a good chance you’ve used one of its apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is looking for ways to fulfill his own AI ambitions, and Meta has been investing tens of billions to build out models and data centers, too.

10. Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla began as an electric-vehicle maker. CEO Elon Musk is the world’s richest man, and he has secured a pay package worth up to $1 trillion if Tesla meets certain goals. Yet, Tesla’s car sales have been flagging in recent years, leading one noted investor to call the stock “ridiculously overvalued.” The company has partly pivoted to developing autonomous vehicles such as the robotaxi, with other new investments in humanoid robotics.

Should You Invest in the World’s Largest Companies?

The companies on this list earned their place by making products that people use every day. The firms have deep pockets and strong competitive positions, so their stocks have responded accordingly over time.

In fact, many of the names above also appear among the Magnificent Seven stocks, known since 2023 for their strong price performance coming out of a down market the year before.

But none of that is a sole reason to buy these stocks, despite their strong returns lately.

You’ll want to look at how these businesses are poised to perform in the future rather than how they’ve done in the past. So you’ll need to analyze their financial resources and product pipelines, their plans and opportunities, and the quality of their management teams.

Another big question for almost all of the companies above is the staying power of AI…

These companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI. If those AI investments don’t work out or investors grow tired of waiting for results, these stocks may decline.

A lot of optimism is priced in to these stock prices. Even if the future of AI is bright, a temporary dip or loss of confidence may send stocks lower… at least for a while. And that could actually be a good moment to invest, if the market is poised to rebound.

Good investing,

James Royal

P.S. Should investors prepare for an AI crash or buy the dips? Analyst and True Wealth editor Brett Eversole just posted a surprising answer.

According to Brett’s research, a pattern is taking shape that could defy all the worst predictions about a bust. He’s calling it a Melt Up Tsunami. And he has identified a half-dozen stocks that could benefit… including his No. 1 stock to own right now. He shares the ticker in this critical presentation.