1 billion years of tectonic plate motion in 40 seconds
It’s no secret that tech giants have exploded in value over the past few years, but the scale can be hard to grasp.
Through large-scale market penetration, intelligent diversification and the transformation of products into services, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have achieved much higher market capitalizations $ 1.5 trillion.
To help us better understand these staggering numbers, a recent study by Mackeeper took the market capitalization of several tech giants and compared them to countries’ annual gross domestic product (GDP).
Editor’s Note: While these numbers are interesting to compare, it should be noted that they represent different things. Market capitalization is the total value of shares outstanding in a publicly traded company and gives an indication of the total valuation, and GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced by a country in an entire year. .
Business versus country: tech giants
If Apple’s market cap equaled a country’s annual GDP, it might just be in the G7.
With a market capitalization of over 2,100 billion dollars, Apple’s market capitalization is over 96% of the country’s GDP, a list that includes Italy, Brazil, Canada and Russia.
In fact, only seven countries in the world have a GDP greater than Apple’s market capitalization.
Further away is Microsoft, which would be the 10th richest country in the world if market capitalization were equal to GDP.
With a market capitalization of over $ 1.9 trillion, Microsoft’s value is greater than the GDP of the world powers of Brazil, Canada, Russia and South Korea.
While all of the tech giants have performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps none have benefited as much as Amazon.
With both online retail and web services in high demand, Amazon’s market capitalization has grown to $ 1.7 trillion, greater than 92% of the country’s GDP.
Other companies “bigger” than the countries
Tech giants aren’t the only companies giving countries a run for their money.
| Country / Company | Nominal GDP (country) or market capitalization (company) |
|---|---|
| united states of america | $ 21,433 billion |
| China | $ 14,343 billion |
| Japan | $ 5,082 billion |
| Germany | $ 3,861 billion |
| India | $ 2,869 billion |
| UK | $ 2,829 billion |
| France | $ 2,716 billion |
| Apple | $ 2,125 billion |
| Italy | $ 2,004 billion |
| Microsoft | $ 1,942 billion |
| Saudi Aramco | $ 1,888 billion |
| Brazil | $ 1,840 billion |
| Canada | $ 1,736 billion |
| Russia | $ 1,700 billion |
| Amazon | $ 1,688 billion |
| Alphabet | $ 1,656 billion |
| South Korea | $ 1,647 billion |
| Australia | $ 1,397 billion |
| Spain | $ 1,393 billion |
| Mexico | $ 1,269 billion |
| Indonesia | $ 1,119 billion |
| $ 939 billion | |
| Netherlands | $ 907 billion |
| Saudi Arabia | $ 793 billion |
| turkey | $ 761 billion |
| Tencent | $ 736 billion |
| Switzerland | $ 703 billion |
| Poland | $ 596 billion |
Market capitalization data as of June 13, 2021
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned company Saudi Aramco is also on the list, with a market capitalization more than double the GDP of its home country.
Chinese tech giant Tencent also has a market capitalization that exceeds the GDP of many countries, such as Switzerland or Poland.
Until recently, Tencent was also ahead of its fellow tech giant Facebook in terms of market capitalization, but the social network has taken the lead and has almost reached $ 1 trillion in market capitalization.
Of course, the biggest caveat to consider with these comparisons is the difference between the market cap and GDP numbers.
A company’s market capitalization is an approximation of its net worth in the eyes of the public markets and changes constantly, while GDP measures a country’s economic output in any given year.
But businesses directly and indirectly affect the economies of countries around the world. With the international reach, the accumulation of wealth and the impact, it is important to consider the wealth and power of these companies.