I won't keep you in suspense. The five biggest public companies in the world on Jan. 1, 1999, ranked in order from largest to smallest, were:
- Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT): $348 billion market cap
- General Electric(NYSE: GE): $261 billion market cap
- Intel(NASDAQ: INTC): $197 billion market cap
- Walmart(NYSE: WMT): $181 billion market cap
- ExxonMobil(NYSE: XOM): $178 billion market cap
Having said that, there are a few important things to mention. For one thing, 1999 was the height of the dot-com bubble, and there was quite a bit of movement on the list throughout the year. For example, by the end of 1999, Microsoft had reached a market cap of more than $600 billion. Plus, Cisco Systems(NASDAQ: CSCO) had catapulted its way into the No. 3 spot, while Intel had fallen off it entirely.
The 5 biggest companies now
As you might expect given that 25 years have passed since 1999, the list of the largest public companies in the world has changed considerably. Here's where it stands as of Sep. 7, 2024:
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL): $3.39 trillion
- Microsoft: $3.00 trillion
- Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA): $2.53 trillion
- Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG): $1.88 trillion
- Amazon.com(NASDAQ: AMZN): $1.78 trillion
Microsoft is the only company that appears on both lists, and the scale of the players on it has increased by about tenfold. Notably, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total U.S. inflation over that period was only around 92%, so most of that change reflects real growth, not a decline in the value of the dollar.
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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Matt Frankel has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short November 2024 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
