Aramco Ranked Sixth Most Valuable Company Globally

Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s majority state-owned oil firm and fourth largest globally in terms of revenue, is among the top 10 of the 100 most valuable companies in the world as of 31 December 2024, according to a compilation published by auditing and consulting firm EY.

Overall, the 100 most expensive companies are worth $44.9 trillion, 25% more than in the previous year, the EY report showed.

Among these 100 companies, the dominance of the US was clear as 62 of them were from North America. Furthermore, nine of the top 10 companies were from the US and Aramco was the only non-US company to figure in the list and was ranked sixth, breaking the dominance of the US companies.

US tech giants Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft were the world’s most valuable companies at the end of 2024. Apple had a market value of around $3.78 trillion as of 31 December 2024, while Nvidia was worth $3.28 trillion and Microsoft $3.13 trillion.

Google’s parent company Alphabet, the retail giant Amazon, and the internet company Meta, which owns Facebook, also found a place in the Top 10 list.

No European company made it into the top 10 and only three companies from Germany made it into the top 100. They were software giant SAP, tech conglomerate Siemens and telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom.

Three companies from Switzerland – Roche, Nestle and Novartis – also figured in the top 100 list as most valuable companies but they slipped further down the list compared to previous years.

Roche has been ranked 46^th after losing three places, while Nestlé has lost even more ground and is now only ranked 51^st after 27^th place last year. Novartis is ranked 66^th compared with 53^rd place in 2023.

A total of 15 Swiss companies made it into the “Top 500” companies including ABB (165), UBS (169) Richemont (185) and, further down the list, Holcim (351) and Swiss Re (463), respectively.

Tech Firms Lead

At $20.16 trillion, the tech sector clearly accounts for the lion’s share and 24 of the top 100 companies come from this sector, including 18 based in the US.

Among tech companies, Europe only plays a minor role – the German SAP Group and the Dutch chip supplier ASML are ranked 32^nd and 33^rd respectively. The most valuable European company is currently the Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk in 14^th place, followed by the French luxury goods group LVMH in 28^th place.

This record hunt on the stock markets was being fuelled by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom, which was driving up the valuations of many companies in the tech sector. This also reflected in their market capitalisation.

EY Chairman Henrik Ahlers said that the stock markets continue to be driven above all by the issue of artificial intelligence, which was driving the growth in value of technology companies worldwide. The weak economy and geopolitical crises seem to recede into the background, he said.