Ranked: 10 Largest Companies In The U.S., Europe, And China

This chart ranks the 10 largest companies in the U.S., EU (including the UK), and China by their market capitalizations.

This article was written by Pallavi Rao and originally published by Visual Capitalist.

Data is sourced from Companiesmarketcap.com and Yahoo Finance, current up to February 10th, 2025.

American Companies Are Highly Valued Over Peers

The top nine American companies by market cap are all worth more than a trillion dollars.

And the 10th largest—Walmart—is a full $300 billion more valuable than Tencent, China’s most valuable company.

Further behind are Europe’s largest by market capitalization: Novo Nordisk and LVMH.

Of course market cap isn’t a measure of revenue or profitability. But it is a measure of investor belief coupled with capital market size.

And on this metric, American companies are dwarfing other, successful companies, from other large economies. But why?

The Self-Sustaining Cycle of Growth

This article from The Economist explains what’s going on. There are two related phenomena at play. Profit-making and valuing future profit-making.

American companies—particularly all the Big Tech ones on this list—are very good at turning a profit.

But why are Big Tech’s profits (or rather their future profits) valued so much? It’s easier for software companies like Microsoft and Facebook to scale operations than say a pharmaceutical giant like Novo Nordisk, or a luxury brand like LVMH.

As a result, valuations begin to skyrocket as investors anticipate future exponential growth. At the time of writing this article, Apple is trading at a 38x price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple, while LVMH sits at 28x.

Now, add in some of the best universities, a culture of innovation, a more business-friendly environment (lower corporate taxes, laxer labor laws) and this dominance becomes self-reinforced.