At the end of last year, even the coronavirus pandemic, the unpredictability of markets did not prevent the world's largest companies from increasing their profits and sales volumes. While many experts focus on market capitalization when assessing the size of the company, the well-known Forbes publication forms its rating of the largest companies in the world The Global 2000 of four indicators: sales, asset profit and market value.

Top 10 largest companies in the world

Forbes is one of the most authoritative in the world according to business estimates. This year, its rating of the largest companies in the world The Global 2000, which unites 2,000 firms, for the first time since the beginning of the count (2003) was headed by the Holding Company Berkshire Hathaway. He managed to displace ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, from the first position. But the Chinese bank topped the rating of the largest companies in the world over the past nine years.

All the major companies of the world included in The Global 2000, during the last reporting period (2021), together sold goods and services for 47.6 trillion US dollars, of which the profit amounted to 5 trillion. Their total assets are $233.7 trillion and their market cap is $76.5 trillion. The Global 2000 included the largest companies in 58 countries of the world. Of these, 590 are registered in the United States, 351 in China, and 196 in Japan.

10. Toyota Motor

  • Country — Japan
  • Sales - 281.75 billion
  • Profit - 28.15 billion
  • Assets — 552.46 trillion
  • Market capitalization — 257.26 billion

Let's start our rating with the only Japanese major company present in it – Toyota Motor.

Toyota Motor Corp is a Japanese company engaged in the automotive and financial business and other activities. The company operates in three business segments. The automotive segment is engaged in the design, production and sale of sedans, minivans, SUVs, trucks and related vehicles, as well as related spare parts and products. The financial segment deals with finance and leasing of vehicles. The third segment is engaged in the design, production and sale of houses, as well as the conduct of information and communication business.

The company oversees manufacturing and trading companies, as well as public relations and research activities in North America and Europe. Toyota Motor Corp provides robots, fundamental research projects, marine and agribusiness.

9. Bank of America

  • Country — USA
  • Sales - 96.83 billion
  • Profit - 31 billion
  • Assets — 3.24 trillion
  • Market capitalization — 252.99 billion

Bank of America (BofA) is a multinational large company providing banking and financial services. It is the world's largest asset management organization and the second largest bank holding company in the United States.

You've probably heard of Bank of America, as it's one of the four largest U.S. banks and also one of the largest companies in the world. Its main competitors are Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. BofA was formerly known as Bank America and NationsBank.

It operates in all 50 states of America, as well as in 40 countries around the world. In 2008, he acquired asset management company Merrill Lynch.

8. Agricultural Bank of China

  • Country — China
  • Sales - 181.42 billion
  • Profit - 37.38 billion
  • Assets — 4.56 trillion
  • Market capitalization — 155.26 billion

The Agricultural Bank of China, or ABC for short, is one of the largest banks in the world. Founded in 1951, its headquarters are in Beijing, with branches scattered throughout China. It also has units in London, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney and Tokyo.

ABC has about 24,000 branches worldwide and boasts more than 320 million retail customers and nearly 3 million corporate customers. It is countryside-oriented, and its clients range from individual farmers to China's largest food and agricultural wholesalers. However, it also serves non-agricultural clients.

ABC became a public major company in 2010. At the time, the share sale was the world's largest initial public offering.

7. Apple

  • Country — USA
  • Sales - 378.7 billion
  • Profit - 100.56 billion
  • Assets — 381.19 bln
  • Market capitalization — 2.21 trillion

About the largest company in the world Apple, you know, probably, more than us. The history of its development is studied at business courses, feature films have been made about it.

Apple began with the assembly of personal computers in the garage of Steve Jobs. The company was founded by Stephen Paul Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Gerald Wayne on April 1, 1976, and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

And now it is one of the most recognizable brands in the world and the largest company by capitalization.

6. Amazon

  • Country — USA
  • Sales - 469.82 billion
  • Profit - 33.36 billion
  • Assets — 420.55 bln
  • Market capitalization — 1.12 trillion

Amazon is the world's largest online store and a well-known cloud service provider.

Originally founded as an online bookselling company, Amazon has evolved into an online business venture primarily focused on providing e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence services.

Headquartered in Seattle, Amazon has separate websites, software development centers, customer service centers, data centers, and fulfillment centers around the world.

Amazon has come a long way since Jeff Bezos was founded in his garage in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994, to the largest company in the world.

Amazon officially opened for business as an online book store on July 16, 1995. Initially, Bezos registered the company as Cadabra, but later changed the name to Amazon. Bezos is said to have scoured the dictionary for a word beginning with the letter A for the meaning of alphabetical placement. He chose the name Amazon because he found it exotic and unusual, and also as a reference to his plan for the size of a large company, reflecting the size of the Amazon River.

By changing the way people buy books, Amazon has also influenced the way they read them, releasing its first e-book, the Kindle, in 2007.

5. China Construction Bank

  • Country — USA
  • Sales - 202.07 billion
  • Profit - 46.89 billion
  • Assets — 4.75 trillion
  • Market capitalization — 179.15 billion

China Construction Bank (CCB) is one of the four largest banks in China and one of the largest banks in the world. Founded in 1954, its headquarters are in Beijing, with branches scattered throughout China. It also has units in London, Sydney, Seoul, Frankfurt, New York and Luxembourg.

CCB, which changed its name from the People's Construction Bank of China to China Construction Bank in 1996, has about 14,000 branches worldwide, providing both corporate and retail banking services.

In 2005, Bank of America acquired a 9% stake in the bank, which contributed to its already rapid growth. The Luxembourg branch, opened in 2013, operates as the bank's European headquarters, and in 2015 CCB became a member of the London Stock Exchange.

Although China's banking system currently operates like Western banks, it is still under the strict control of the Chinese government.

4. JPMorgan Chase

  • Country — USA
  • Sales - 124.54 billion
  • Profit - 42.12 billion
  • Assets — 3.95 trillion
  • Market capitalization — 328.71 billion

JPMorgan Chase is one of the oldest, largest and most famous financial institutions in the world, with operations in more than 60 other countries. Among the millions of customers are individuals and small businesses, as well as institutions, government agencies and corporate clients.

JPMorgan Chase is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol JPM.

A large bank has been operating in one form or another since 1799. The financial institution owes its current size and scale to a number of key mergers, including two firms that gave the bank its current name: JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan.

3. Saudi Aramco

  • Country — Saudi Arabia
  • Sales - 400.38 billion
  • Profit - 105.36 billion
  • Assets — 576.04 bln
  • Market capitalization — 2.18 trillion

Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) is a state-owned energy and chemical large company. It carries out exploration, production and processing of crude oil and natural gas, processing, fractionation of natural gas, production of petrochemical products and distribution of petroleum products and natural gas.

The large company Saudi Aramco fully owns domestic refineries and has a stake in joint ventures with international partners. Saudi Aramco operates through a network of pipelines, tank farms, filling stations and terminals. The company also operates power plants and related transmission and distribution facilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company has subsidiaries and joint ventures in the Americas, Europe and other regions. Saudi Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran, The Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco is one of the largest companies in the world, the most profitable company in the world, producing more oil every day than any other producer in the world.

The company first began oil exploration in Saudi Arabia in 1933. All of Saudi Arabia's oil fields are now under the umbrella of Aramco, a vast network stretching across the Kingdom containing about 16 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, more than the combined reserves of the five largest oil companies in the world. Oil production in Saudi Aramco is produced at the lowest price in the world - about $ 3 per barrel.

2. ICBC

  • Country — China
  • Sales - 208.13 billion
  • Profit - 54.03 billion
  • Assets — 5.52 trillion
  • Market capitalization — 253.52 billion

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is a Chinese multinational bank, the largest in the world.

It is one of the state-owned commercial banks of China's "Big Four", along with the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China and the China Construction Bank.

In 2006, ICBC became the first major company listed simultaneously on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchanges. At that time, it was the largest IPO in the world, valued at $ 21.9 billion.

ICBC was founded in January 1984 as a limited liability company. It is headquartered in Beijing. ICBC received federal approval to open a branch in New York in 2008, becoming the second Chinese bank since 1991 to do so.

In 2016, he was awarded the "Best Banking Executive in China".

1. Berkshire Hathaway

  • Country — USA
  • Sales – $276.09 billion
  • Profit - 89.8 billion
  • Assets — 958.78 bln
  • Market capitalization — 586.61 billion

And in the first place of our rating of the largest companies in the world is the American holding of Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway is an American holding company controlled by Warren Buffett, who remains its largest shareholder. Buffett is called the "Oracle of Omaha" because he is one of the most prolific investors in the history of the world.

Berkshire Hathaway as a large company has its roots in the early U.S. textile industry. The company was founded in 1888, and after an initial period of growth, it became financially unstable after the First World War. Buffett, a supporter and financial patron of the business, began to steadily increase his stake in the company through the purchase of shares.

In its early years and to this day, Berkshire Hathaway has pursued its investment strategy of investing or owning businesses in major industries such as railways, insurance and utilities.

Here are some of the most recognizable brands, 100% owned by the large company Berkshire Hathaway:

  • GEICO 
  • Duracell 
  • Fruit of the Loom
  • Pampered Chef
  • BNSF Railway
  • Benjamin Moore & Co. 

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