The most valuable companies in the world have grown to impressive heights in recent years, with five publicly traded companies reaching market capitalizations of $1 trillion or more. All five companies come from the tech sector, with many offering products and services that consumers use every day.

Here are the largest publicly traded companies and members of the trillion-dollar club.

What is market capitalization and what does it mean?

A company’s market capitalization is equal to the total value of its outstanding shares. Market cap can be calculated by multiplying a company’s stock price by its shares outstanding. For example, a $10 stock with 1 billion shares outstanding would have a market cap of $10 billion.

Market cap is used to measure what a company is worth at a given time.

Trillion dollar companies

*Market cap data as of September 29, 2023.

1. Apple (AAPL)

Apple designs and makes a variety of consumer tech products and has one of the best known brands in the world. Apple generated more than $200 billion in iPhone sales during its fiscal 2022 and total sales reached nearly $400 billion. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is one of the company’s largest shareholders and Buffett has repeatedly praised the tech giant’s business.

  • Market cap: $2.7 trillion
  • Stock price: $172

2. Microsoft (MSFT)

Microsoft is best known for its suite of software offerings including Microsoft Office. The company generated nearly $212 billion in sales during its 2023 fiscal year. Microsoft expects to close its $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard in October 2023.

  • Market cap: $2.3 trillion
  • Stock price: $317

3. Alphabet (GOOG and GOOGL)

Alphabet is the parent company of search giant Google and generates the majority of its almost $283 billion in revenue from online advertising. Google also has a cloud business, owns YouTube and has a variety of other ventures it classifies as “other bets.”

  • Market cap: $1.7 trillion
  • Stock price: $133

4. Amazon (AMZN)

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and has also built a sizable cloud business in Amazon Web Services. Amazon generated total sales of roughly $514 billion in 2022, including more than $80 billion from AWS. Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos was the third-richest person in the world as of September 2023, according to Bloomberg.

  • Market cap: $1.3 trillion
  • Stock price: $128

5. Nvidia (NVDA)

Semiconductor company Nvidia became the latest company to cross the trillion dollar mark in June 2023, as investors bid up its shares in anticipation of a boom in artificial intelligence. Nvidia designs advanced chips that are used in AI systems and its shares are up about 195 percent in 2023 as of September. The company generated about $27 billion in revenue during its fiscal 2023.

  • Market cap: $1.1 trillion
  • Stock price: $437

Note: Social media giant Meta Platforms and electric-vehicle maker Tesla have also crossed the $1 trillion mark, but their share prices have since declined below that level.