In June 2024, Nvidia (NVDA) became the largest publicly traded company in the world for the first time, briefly surpassing Microsoft. Throughout 2025, Nvidia has been in and out of the number one spot.1
This is an incredible feat. Especially considering, back in 2019, Nvidia had a market cap of about $144 billion compared to Microsoft’s market cap of $1.2 trillion.
Because Nvidia is a relative newcomer to the list of world’s largest companies, the obvious question is: how long can it remain there? The 10 largest companies in the world twenty years ago are different from the top 10 today (with one exception).
Let’s take a look at the 10 biggest companies from June 2024 and 2025, then hop back in time to 2005.
As of June 30th, 2025, Nvidia is the largest company in the world by market cap.
Market capitalization (market cap) is one way to describe the value of a publicly traded company. Market cap is calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the total number of shares available.
The Largest Companies in the World as of June 30, 2025.
NOTE: the list above only includes publicly traded companies. It does not include privately held companies such as ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok) or SpaceX.
The top 10 companies haven’t changed drastically from a year ago. Broadcom is the only addition, and Eli Lilly fell out of the top 10.
The list hasn’t changed much in 12 months. But if we go back 20 years, the difference is drastic.
The 2005 list looks nothing like the 2025 list. Microsoft is the only company that appears on both rankings.
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SOURCE: Fort Boise.org
As the charts above show, the top companies today may not be the world’s largest twenty years from now. Different sectors, countries and companies fall in and out of favor over time.
The 2025 list is dominated by US technology companies, particularly those involved in AI. But will that still be the case in the years to come?
The biggest beneficiaries of the robotics/AI revolution could be consumer-facing retail companies. These operations may experience a once-in-a-lifetime boost in operational efficiency, automation and data processing. The “company of the future” might be a huge retailer such as Amazon, or even Walmart.
It’s also possible some of the world’s largest companies haven’t been founded yet. Nvidia has only been a public company for 26 years, but its rise has been meteoric.
Since Nvidia’s initial public offering in 1999, the stock has returned a staggering 436,114.1%!
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SOURCE: Morningstar
On July 9th, 2025, Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to reach a $4 trillion market cap.4 Nvidia’s market cap is larger than most countries’ stock markets! Only the stock markets of the US, China, Japan, India and Hong Kong are larger.
While researching equity market history can be fascinating, it doesn’t really lead to an immediate, actionable trading strategy. Everyone wants to invest in the next NVDA, but if Nvidia’s future ascendance to the #1 spot was obvious, then the stock wouldn’t have gone through five separate drawdowns of more than 55% (including two drawdowns of more than 85%) in its first 25 years as a public company.5
Instead of trying to pick the big winner of tomorrow, it makes more sense to work with an experienced wealth manager who can help you create a financial plan tailored to your retirement goals and overall financial situation. Let us know what you’d like to achieve and we’ll create a customized plan to help you get there.
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Assembly Wealth (“Assembly”) is an SEC-registered investment adviser; however, this does not imply any level of skill or training and no inference of such should be made. The opinions expressed herein are as of the date of publication and are provided for informational purposes only. Content will not be updated after publication and should not be considered current after the publication date. We provide historical content for transparency purposes only. All opinions are subject to change without notice and due to changes in the market or economic conditions may not necessarily come to pass. Mention of a security should not be considered a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or sell the security, and any securities mentioned may be held by Assembly for client portfolios. Information presented represents an opinion as of the date published and should not be considered an investment recommendation. Assembly does not become a fiduciary to any listener, reader or other person or entity by the person’s use of or access to the material. The reader assumes the responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content and for any decisions based on such content.
