U.S. corporations like Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are not only pioneers in their respective fields but have successfully parlayed their technology and cutting-edge products into global domination.
In its effort to illustrate the sheer supremacy of U.S. companies, HowMuch.net took the biggest 50 tech companies in the world by market capitalization and then drew up a chart comparing them to their competitors.
Related: One chart puts mega tech’s trillions of market value into eye-popping perspective
Seven out of the top 10 biggest corporations in the world were from the U.S., along with two from China and one from Korea. They were then divided into five categories to show where each U.S. entity stood versus their competitors. In almost all sectors except for media, U.S. companies were facing challenges from foreign competitors.
HowMuch.net
“The biggest companies come from North America (purple), and most are headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA. Second place clearly goes to China (red), which boasts several companies in the top 50, but none are even half the size of the world’s leaders like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft,” said Raul Amoros, director of content development at HowMuch.net.
The chart also illustrates the undeniable wealth gap in the world of technology with only a handful of companies cracking $500 billion in market cap while highlighting Apple’s AAPL, -1.53% almost deity-like position within the technology hardware and equipment category.
“It’s Apple’s universe ($1.1T), and then there’s everyone else. Samsung ($297B) 005930, +0.56% , perhaps the only real competitor to Apple’s iPhone, is the obvious standout from South Korea, but Apple is almost 4 times as big,” he said. “The semiconductor industry is likewise controlled by a few companies like Intel ($222B) INTC, -0.73% TSMC ($219B) TSM, -2.33% and Nvidia ($174B) NVDA, -3.18% ”
It’s worth noting, however, that in terms of revenue, Samsung is also as much a semiconductor company. In the second quarter, Samsung reported smartphone-related revenue of $21 billion, or 41% of consolidated revenue, while its chip revenue totaled $19.35 billion, accounting for 38%.
What the global landscape will look like in the next few years is difficult to predict in an ever-changing world. Amoros noted that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA, -3.14% has the potential to double in value this year. If so, the Chinese online retailer could theoretically knock Amazon off of its lofty perch.
And ultimately, these global leaders’ Achilles heel could very well be their size.
“The biggest threat to these companies might not be the changing economy or developments in technology, but rumblings that antitrust legislation is needed to break up ‘big tech’ monopolies,” said Amoros.
It’s not easy being no. 1.
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