With JPMorgan at the top of the list, the United States has extended its lead as the home of the world’s largest companies according to the annual Forbes Global 2000 ranking. Strong US markets are to be commended.
from Hank TuckerForbes Staff
WAs Americans continue to grapple with high grocery prices and the highest mortgage rates in more than two decades, the world’s largest economy is still proving to be as resilient as ever.
Whether the United States is simply the “cleanest dirty shirt” in a lean time for the entire globe or a leader at the forefront of an AI-fueled revolution, investors are increasingly keeping their focus here. There are 621 US-based firms Forbes’ The 22nd annual Global 2000 list ranks the world’s largest publicly traded companies, up from 611 last year, its highest point since 2007 before the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the number of companies calling China or Hong Kong home shrank to 324 from 346 last year.
THE ASSUMPTION OF NVIDIA
Nvidia didn’t crack the Global 2000 top 1000 until 2017, but is now on the precipice of the top 100.
The Global 2000 ranks companies by sales, profit, assets and market value, with all four variables given equal weight. This year’s list includes the last 12 months of data available through May 17. The 2,000 companies on the list collectively account for $88 trillion in market value, a 19% increase in market value, and have posted slight increases to a record $51.7 trillion in revenue, $4.5 trillion in profits and $238 trillion in assets.
More than $4 trillion of these assets belong to JPMorgan Chase, which held the No. 1 on the list for the second year in a row. America’s biggest bank posted record net income of $50 billion and wiped $500 billion in capital for the first time, bracing itself during last year’s regional banking crisis by bringing in more customer deposits and buying First Republic Bank from bankruptcy.
“Despite the troubling landscape, including last year’s regional banking turmoil, the U.S. economy continues to be resilient, with consumers still spending and markets currently expecting a slight slowdown,” CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. “By acquiring First Republic Bank, we brought much-needed stability to the U.S. banking system, allowing us to give First Republic’s more than half a million customers a new and safe home.”
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway returned to second place on the list after falling to 338th last year due to unrealized losses in its investment portfolio that caused a negative net income on paper, and the return of market also helped Amazon climb into the top 10 at no. 6. Six of the top 10 companies and 14 of the top 25 companies are located in the US
While the S&P 500 was rising to record highs last year, the Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks Chinese stocks, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index both fell for a second year in a row in 2023. China is still embroiled in an economic crisis. real estate caused by the collapse of the Evergrande Group in 2021.
GLOBAL IMBALANCE
The US is keeping China at bay, but other emerging markets such as India are strengthening.
China’s southern neighbor is faring better, as India placed 71 companies in the Global 2000, up from 55 last year to move behind the United Kingdom and South Korea in the top five most represented countries. Its largest company, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance Industries, ranked 49th with $109 billion in trailing 12-month sales and a market capitalization of $233 billion. Life Insurance Corp. of India, which just went public in 2022 and debuted on the list last year at No. 362, climbed to No. 70 this year, with its profit rising ninefold to $4.9 billion and its stock rising 70 %.
Other notable jumps in the rankings include telecom giant AT&T. The company, which operated as a monopoly for much of the 20th century and whose origins date back some 150 years, fell to 370th place last year due to a net loss of $23.5 billion. which posted asset write-offs in the fourth quarter of 2022, but rebounded to No. 37 thanks to a return to profitability despite a stagnant share price.
Going the other way, Pfizer, which is even older than AT&T, founded in 1849, is the most prominent name among a host of pharmaceutical firms that dipped into the rankings. After being one of the heroes of the pandemic, vaccinating billions of people around the world, Pfizer has struggled in the post-Covid world. Its 12-month sales during the first quarter of this year were up 41% to $55 billion compared to last year, and it has been slightly unprofitable in the past 12 months after falling into the red in the third and fourth quarters of 2023. .CEO Albert Bourla acknowledged that Pfizer missed its internal forecasts in its year-end earnings call and its stock price is lower than it was even when the pandemic began. It fell to number 436 from number 39 in this year’s Global 2000.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Here are the companies that made the five biggest jumps into the top 100 and the five biggest falls from the top 100.
Pfizer’s peer in the Covid vaccine business, Moderna, suffered an even bigger decline. Its sales in the first quarter this year were just $167 million, a 91% drop from its $1.9 billion quarter a year ago. Over a 12-month period, Moderna’s $5.1 billion in revenue fell 66%, and it posted a $6 billion net loss. Its Global 2000 ranking dropped more than 1,000 places from No. 462 in No. 1,468. However, the promise of new products in the pipeline, including an RSV vaccine and a Covid-19 combination vaccine, has helped its stock rise 31% this year, though it’s still 67% off its peak. in 2021.
While drug and biotech companies were the hardest-hit sectors, many of the best performers were concentrated in financial services, insurance and semiconductors. Nvidia, the stock market’s darling for the past two years thanks to its dominance in creating graphics processing units for AI applications, climbed more than 100 points to 110th, and other chipmakers such as Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices also jumped sharply.
SEMICONDUCTOR RULES
Chipmaking has been one of the hottest industries of the year as companies rush to build new AI applications.
In a quiet year for major IPOs, there are relatively few entrants on the list, but one company that debuts at No. 856 on the shoulders of the AI boom is Super Micro Computer, whose stock is up more than 800% since by early 2023. The San Jose-based company that sells servers and storage for data centers now has a market cap of $52 billion, with $1 billion in trailing 12-month profit on $12 billion in sales, nearly doubling in a year. The top-ranked newcomer at No. 680 is GE Vernova, a spin-off of General Electric’s energy businesses that began trading this May.
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