These tech behemoths have been top market performers in recent decades.
Technology is the economic sector that currently garners the most media coverage and investor inflows. The robust interest in technology stems from its strong historical rates of growth and exciting innovations over the last decade. This sector is comprised of companies involved in developing, manufacturing, distributing and selling software, hardware and semiconductors. As interest rates steadily fell prior to 2022, the sector delivered years of strong returns, outpacing the broad market. Even after recent losses, the dominance of technology companies remains. Currently, the tech sector accounts for roughly 19.5% of the world’s stock market as represented by the MSCI ACWI IMI Index, and 26.5% of the U.S. stock market as represented by the S&P 500 index. Here’s a ranking of the world’s 10 largest tech companies by float-adjusted market capitalization in U.S. dollars, based on the MSCI ACWI Information Technology Index as of Jan. 31.
10. Cisco Systems Inc. (ticker: CSCO)
Cisco Systems is a U.S. technology company that provides a broad range of internet products and services. Founded in 1984, the company became a household name in the world of technology after surviving the dot-com bubble and has since been instrumental in shaping the internet as we know it today. Currently, Cisco has a strong presence in the enterprise networking market, offering a wide range of products, including routers, switches and security solutions. In recent years, Cisco also expanded into cloud computing and positioned itself as a leader in the rapidly growing market for Internet of Things technology. Today, Cisco is known for being a mature company with a relatively high 3.2% dividend yield, which is fairly unusual for a technology sector stock.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $201.5 billion.
9. Broadcom Inc. (AVGO)
Broadcom provides semiconductor solutions for various industries, including data center, networking, software and wireless communications companies. The company operates in three main business segments: semiconductor solutions, infrastructure software and services. Its long list of products includes network switches, storage controllers, broadband modems and Wi-Fi chips. To capitalize on the increasing prevalence of cyberattacks, the company acquired Symantec’s enterprise security business in 2019 in order to cement its presence in the cybersecurity market. Like Cisco, Broadcom is also notable for paying a decent 2.8% dividend yield.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $236.2 billion
8. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930)
Not all technology stocks hail from the U.S. market. International companies like Korea-based Samsung Electronics also have a strong market presence and brand-name recognition around the globe. In particular, Samsung is well known for its smartphone lineup, in addition to more traditional home appliances like televisions, refrigerators and more. The company is also an overseas leader in the semiconductor industry, producing cutting-edge memory and microprocessor components for other tech companies. The company recently unveiled its latest Galaxy S23 and S23+ smartphones, which boast even more powerful processors and cameras compared to previous generations, in addition to the Galaxy Z, a smartphone modeled after a flip phone.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $236.5 billion
7. ASML Holding NV (ASML)
Another international tech company worth noting is ASML Holding NV, which hails from the Netherlands. As one of the eurozone’s most notable tech companies, ASML is a vital player in the semiconductor industry as it develops and manufactures extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography systems. Semiconductor manufacturers around the world depend on ASML’s lithography systems to produce increasingly complex and miniaturized integrated circuits. The company’s current customer base includes many of the world’s largest semiconductor makers, a list that spans Intel Corp. (INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM) and Samsung, to name a few.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $266 billion
6. Mastercard Inc. (MA)
Best known for its credit cards, Mastercard is one of the world’s largest payment-processing companies, with a payment network that offers secure, fast and convenient transactions in over 200 countries. The current product and service lineup includes the aforementioned credit cards, but also debit cards, prepaid cards and payment-processing solutions for e-commerce and in-person transactions. In recent years, Mastercard has made investments into innovative technologies, such as digital wallets, biometric authentication and even blockchain-based solutions. In 2019, Mastercard made headlines for its launch of Identity Check Express, which uses biometric technology such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning to reduce the risk of fraud.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $319.8 billion
5. Visa Inc. (V)
Mastercard’s main competitor is Visa, which also operates one of the world’s largest payment-processing networks. Like Mastercard, Visa offers credit and debit card purchases, e-commerce transactions and more. Visa is no stranger to innovation, with a notable example being the launch of its B2B Connect program in 2019 that covered more than 30 global trade corridors. This program uses blockchain technology to facilitate cross-border business-to-business, or B2B, payments between global financial institutions by tokenizing sensitive information. While the company’s dividend yield is quite small at just 0.7%, it has a sustainable 22% payout ratio. For Visa, reinvesting spare cash instead of distributing it to shareholders is a sign that management continues to favor growth.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $376.4 billion
4. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM)
Companies like Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) may design the bleeding-edge chips used in smartphones and gaming consoles, but it is chipmaking titan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing that actually produces them. The company is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of a wide range of semiconductor products, including microprocessors, graphics processing units, or GPUs, and other integrated circuits used by leading U.S. tech companies like Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA). The company continues to dominate and post profits, generating $19.9 billion in revenue and $9.4 billion in earnings for the quarter ended December 2022.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $428.3 billion.
3. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
One of the hottest tech stocks during the COVID-19 bull run was Nvidia. The company saw its market cap balloon to over $800 billion by late 2021 amid high demand for its GPUs as the lockdown spurred video game demand. The concurrent Bitcoin (BTC) bull run also helped the company as its GPUs were used in mining rigs. Beyond gaming and cryptocurrency mining, Nvidia GPUs and chips are also used for other applications, including machine learning, scientific simulation and data analysis. Other industries use the immense processing power of Nvidia GPUs for visualization tasks like computer-aided design, or CAD, and computer-generated imagery, or CGI. The company’s annual revenue hit $26.9 billion in fiscal 2022, with net income of $9.8 billion.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $486.5 billion.
2. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Founded by billionaire Bill Gates and Paul Allen out of a garage in 1975, Microsoft became one of the few tech companies to not only survive but thrive after the catastrophic dot-com bubble in 2000. Today, the company has expanded beyond its ubiquitous Windows operating system to also dominate the cloud computing market with Azure, social media with LinkedIn, and gaming with Xbox. In January 2023, Microsoft made headlines with a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the company behind the critically acclaimed ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot. Since then, the company has unveiled a revitalized Bing search engine and Edge internet browser, now backed by a more advanced version of OpenAI’s language model. The company also pays a modest, but steadily growing, dividend yield of 0.9%.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $1.8 trillion.
1. Apple Inc. (AAPL)
The influence of Apple as the world’s largest technology sector stock cannot be understated. Right now, the company sits at the top of the S&P 500 index with a 6.6% weighting. Its stock performance is capable of moving the index, whether for better or worse. Thankfully, in recent years it has been for the better. Despite the death of its visionary Steve Jobs in 2011, Apple has been able to continually deliver on products that resonate well with its devoted customer base, which include the latest iPhone 14 (which also comes in Pro and Pro Max versions), many iPad generations, wireless Airpod headphones and the Apple Watch smartwatch. The best endorsement of this stock can be found by examining Warren Buffett’s portfolio, where Apple occupies a prominent weighting as of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (BRK.A, BRK.B) November 2022 13-F filing.
Float-adjusted market capitalization: $2.3 trillion.
The 10 biggest tech companies in the world:
1. Apple Inc. (AAPL)
2. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
3. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
4. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM)
5. Visa Inc. (V)
6. Mastercard Inc. (MA)
7. ASML Holding NV (ASML)
8. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930)
9. Broadcom Inc. (AVGO)
10. Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO)
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The 10 Biggest Tech Companies in the World originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 02/14/23: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
