Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) have jockeyed for the lead as America’s most valuable company, each with a market cap of about $550 billion. One tech giant vs. another. A look at the top 20 American public corporations reveals several other close comparisons
One note is that the top five positions on the market cap table are tech companies, and have left large energy companies behind. After Apple and Alphabet are Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) at $435 billion, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) at $364 billion, and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) at $360 billion.
All five companies are trying to play in at least one of the others’ backyards. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are among the cloud computing leaders. Amazon and Apple continue to fight each other for dominance in the streaming media market. Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet are all in the mobile OS market. The only company on the list without a significant challenger is Facebook, one of the reasons its market cap is so high.
Exxon Mobile (NYSE: XOM) is tied with Amazon in market cap, at $360 billion. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is also on the list at $191 billion. Big oil has not been entirely kicked off the list
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is on the list at $217 billion. Investors in rival Amazon and Walmart cannot help noting how far bricks and mortars have fallen behind e-commerce. Walmart is trying to catch up, piecemeal, most recently with its $3 billion buyout of Jet.com.
Two major banks are on the list, with market caps fairly close to one another. JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) at $240 billion and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) at $245 billion.
And, finally the two largest phone companies and wireless providers in the U.S. AT&T (NYSE: T) at $244 billion, and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) at $211 billion
(Notably, no car companies are on the list, a departure from decades ago
Top 20 market cap companies, courtesy of The Online Investor
Large Cap Company Ticker Market Cap
($in billions)
Apple Inc AAPL 555.71
Alphabet Inc GOOGL 541.90
Alphabet Inc GOOG 522.09
Microsoft Corporation MSFT 438.02
Facebook Inc FB 364.99
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 360.36
Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM 360.10
Johnson & Johnson JNJ 323.46
General Electric Co GE 269.82
Wells Fargo & Co. WFC 245.82
AT&T Inc T 244.30
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM 240.74
Procter & Gamble Co. PG 230.21
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT 217.46
Verizon Communications Inc VZ 211.23
Pfizer Inc PFE 206.84
Visa Inc V 191.94
Chevron Corporation CVX 191.05
Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK.B 188.03
Coca-Cola Co (The) KO 182.44
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