Biggest tech companies in the world
Forbes has listed the 2,000 biggest companies in the world, with General Electric, Apple and Samsung leading the pack for tech companies.
While the top reaches of Forbes’ list of biggest companies is dominated by financial insitutions and petroleum and energy giants, technology companies make a strong showing.
The biggest tech company by some margin is General Electric, which is listed as the 4th biggest company in the world, behind only the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1st), Chinese Construction Bank (2nd) and JP Morgan Chase (3rd).
General Electric is a diversified technology and financial services company. While it’s not a common name amongst consumer products, the company’s products spread across a range of sectors – from aircraft engines to power generation.
The second largest tech company, Apple, is far more familiar to consumers and ranked as the 14th largest company in the world.
Following close behind Apple is its global competitor, Samsung Electronics, which ranked 20th overall.
In the telecoms sector, American network giant AT&T ranked as the telecommunications operator, placing 4th on the tech list and 24th overall.
China Mobile, the largest network operator in the world with 1.13 billion subscribers, ranks as the second biggest telecoms company, 5th in technology, and 29th overall.
Vodacom’s parent company, Vodafone featured high-up on the list (33rd overall) while South African operator MTN Group, which operates in over 20 markets internationally, placed further down the overall list at 345th.
Top 20 largest tech companies
| Rank | Company | Sales ($bn) |
Profit ($bn) | Assets ($bn) | Market value ($bn) |
| 4 | General Electric | 147.4 | 13.6 | 685.3 | 243.7 |
| 15 | Apple | 164.7 | 41.7 | 196.1 | 416.6 |
| 20 | Samsung Electronics | 187.8 | 21.7 | 196.3 | 174.4 |
| 24 | AT&T | 127.4 | 7.3 | 272.3 | 200.1 |
| 29 | China Mobile | 88.8 | 20.5 | 168.7 | 213.8 |
| 33 | Vodafone | 74.4 | 11.1 | 219.9 | 135.7 |
| 34 | IBM | 104.5 | 16.6 | 119.2 | 239.5 |
| 41 | Microsoft | 72.9 | 15.5 | 128.7 | 234.8 |
| 51 | Siemens | 100.6 | 5.7 | 134.4 | 91.9 |
| 56 | Comcast | 62.6 | 6.2 | 165.0 | 106.3 |
| 62 | Telefónica | 82.3 | 5.2 | 161.5 | 67.1 |
| 68 | 50.2 | 10.7 | 93.8 | 268.4 | |
| 77 | Intel | 53.3 | 11.0 | 84.4 | 105.7 |
| 80 | Cisco Systems | 47.3 | 9.3 | 96.4 | 116.9 |
| 92 | United Technologies | 57.7 | 5.1 | 89.4 | 85.5 |
| 100 | América Móvil | 60.2 | 7.1 | 74.6 | 70.7 |
| 102 | Oracle | 37.1 | 10.6 | 79.4 | 172.0 |
| 117 | Hitachi | 116.8 | 4.2 | 113.2 | 28.5 |
| 134 | Verizon Communications | 115.8 | 0.9 | 225.2 | 137.3 |
| 139 | China Telecom | 44.9 | 2.4 | 87.4 | 42.0 |
Methodology
Forbes’ 2,000 biggest companies listing is formulated by analyzing listed companies from across the world and ranking the top 2,000 in four categories: sales, profits, assets and market value.
Each company is given a score based on where they place on each respective list, and the final top 2,000 list is compiled based on a final, aggregated score.
Each of the 2,000 lists has a minimum cutoff value in order for a company to qualify: sales of $3.89 billion; profits of $232.2 million; assets of $ 7.85 billion; and market value of $4.25 billion.
“A company needs to qualify for at least one of the lists in order to be eligible for the final Global 2000 ranking. This year 3,400 companies were needed to fill out the four lists of 2000, each company qualifying for at least one of the lists,” Forbes said.
See the full list of 2000 biggest companies on Forbes.
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