00:00Back in 2018, Apple became the first company whose market capitalization crossed the one trillion dollar threshold. Investors were amazed, and people wondered how any company could possibly be worth that much. One thousand billion dollars. Fast forward eight years, and we have 16 companies whose market capitalization exceeds the one trillion dollar threshold. And the most valuable of them, Nvidia, is worth nearly 80 times the largest bank in the Nordics, namely Nordea. Leading the pack are Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft, of which Nvidia has crossed the five trillion dollar threshold. As did Apple momentarily. The group is perhaps less diverse than many might guess. It includes oil giant Saudi Aramco, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Warren Buffett's investment company Berkshire Hathaway. The seventh most valuable company is SpaceX.

00:46With a value of nearly two trillion dollars. A clear common denominator, however, is semiconductors, and a big theme is artificial intelligence. Six companies, Nvidia, TSMC, Broadcom, Samsung, Micron and AMD, rely on semiconductors, and out of the 16 companies on the list there is only one oil company. Only one pharmaceutical company and only one investment company. The rest are technology companies. Almost all trillion-dollar companies are American, 13 out of the 16 companies. US firms. TSMC is listed in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea and Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia. There are no European companies at all, nor any Japanese, Indian or Chinese ones. And regarding China, perhaps as a funny side note, the largest Chinese company is by no means Alibaba or Tencent, but rather the recently listed memory company CXMT.

01:33Nvidia is the gauge of the AI boom. The world's most valuable publicly traded company is Nvidia with a market capitalization of 5.4 trillion dollars, and these data are gathered from last week's prices. The rise has been exceptionally rapid. Nvidia only crossed the one trillion dollar threshold in 2023, and in October 2025, meaning last year, it became the first five trillion dollar company. Behind the momentum is the AI data centers' ravenous demand for Nvidia's chips. Even in the 2016 fiscal year, Nvidia was a gaming company, with over half of its revenue coming from graphics cards intended for computer gaming, and in the 2021 fiscal year, 90% of Nvidia's revenue came from data centers, with gaming being merely a rounding error. This is perhaps a funny chart to observe, showing how these companies transform over the years. Meaning Nvidia is a completely different company than what it was 10 years ago. The amount of data center revenue has increased by over 200-fold in 10 years, and this is actually a fun and illustrative image that I made.

02:33Meaning Nvidia would fit into the Helsinki Stock Exchange top ten 18 times. The most valuable company on the Helsinki Stock Exchange is Nordea with a market capitalization of around 60 billion dollars, and Nokia follows closely behind with a value of around 50 billion dollars. Meaning Nvidia's value is nearly 80 times that of Nordea. If we add up the ten most valuable companies on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, their combined market capitalization is around 260 billion euros, meaning the group includes, among others, Nordea, Nokia, Kone, Neste, Sampo, Fortum etc. Meaning Nvidia is about 18 times more valuable than the ten most valuable companies on the Helsinki Stock Exchange combined. This is a funny thing in itself, because trillions, billions and millions easily get mixed up, but this gives a good picture of how valuable Nvidia actually is. We have market leaders in their respective fields here. Nordea is the largest bank in the Nordics, Nokia is a leading player in its field. Kone is the largest player in the elevator market following this business acquisition. We have Neste, which leads in renewable energies, and Sampo, the largest insurance company in the Nordics.

03:39Next, let's go through a bit of how this list of the most valuable companies has evolved over recent decades. And let's start from 1970. This is the decade of industrial America. IBM is the undisputed number one with a market capitalization of 42 billion dollars, and perhaps noteworthy here is that this list features seven oil companies: Exxon, Texaco, Shell, Gulf, Chevron, Mobil and Arco. And perhaps the second noteworthy thing on this list is that Kodak, Xerox and Polaroid represent the technology companies of their time. These were high-tech companies in the 1970s. Many may know that some of these companies have already died out. This list also features automotive companies General Motors, Ford and department store Sears. All in all, a very interesting list.

04:30In the 1980s, this is the decade of oil. There was an oil crisis in the 1970s, and that is also reflected in this list. Following the oil crisis, 10 oil and energy companies are among the world's most valuable companies. There are no. AT&T is number one. Thus, the top spot has shifted from the 1940s to AT&T at a value of 48 billion dollars. This company still exists today. One of the largest telecom operators in America belongs to this top 3 list, which includes AT&T along with Verizon and T-Mobile.

05:00Then we move to 1990. This era is characterized by a major bubble in Japan, during which Japanese companies, real estate and land were the most valuable in the world. And a surprise name, Nippon Telegraph NTL, has risen to the top spot on this list. This is the number one company. Of course, the list still features IBM, AT&T. Of course it does. The real estate and stock bubble swelled so much that the Imperial Palace was said to be more valuable than the entire state of California in 1990. We only have 3 oil companies left. Among the world's 20 most valuable companies. Then, perhaps noteworthy is that these brand companies rise in the 1990s. Philip Morris is one of the world's most valuable companies. This tobacco firm, Coca-Cola, sugary beverages, Wal-Mart, shopping centers and Procter & Gamble. And of course, old familiar names IBM and AT&T are still here on the list of the world's most valuable companies.

05:53Then we move to the year 2000, meaning the time of the IT bubble. Microsoft is the world's most valuable company, and Nokia is of course also found on the list. Nokia is the 17th most valuable company. And perhaps noteworthy about this year 2000 is that these technology companies have risen to the top of the list. Alongside Microsoft and Nokia, we also have Cisco, which is strongly associated with this tech bubble when cables were being laid underground under the belief that the internet would come and conquer everything. Well, there was a bit of an overreaction there then. Found here were Intel, Oracle, IBM, Sun and Lucent, and Exxon Mobil is the only oil company on this list of the 20 most valuable companies.

06:29Then we move to 2010. China's growth puts raw materials at the very center. Exxon Mobil is the world's most valuable company. Apple is there as the second most valuable company, along with PetroChina. This Chinese oil company is the third most valuable company. Then the list naturally features Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's investment company. Google is also found here. If we compare this year 2010 to the present day, then companies that already dominate the lists of the world's most valuable companies today are starting to be found on this list. Many of these companies that are found on this list of most valuable companies in 2010 still exist today. These companies did not disappear anywhere at all, but the business of these companies simply did not develop at the same pace as the businesses of these current top companies, the world's most valuable companies of today, have developed. They are all still here. AT&T is still chugging along, selling cell phone plans in the US, but that market simply didn't develop as favorably, so AT&T's market capitalization has also stagnated at those levels.

07:32Oil companies. One overarching theme on this list over the past 50 years. At their peak, there were 10 oil companies among the world's 20 most valuable enterprises in 1980, but their number has since decreased, and today only one company is found on this list. And that is the Saudi Arabian company Saudi Aramco. And it feels like the position of the world's most valuable company has always reflected the scarcest resource of its time. We have had many oil companies on that list. Oil is a scarce resource. It certainly still is, but since then the top spots have been taken by Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia. We talk about smartphones, software, cloud computing capacity, digital marketplaces, the App Store, AI chips. Nvidia. So this position of the most valuable company has always reflected the future revenue growth prospects at any given time, showing in which sector major growth opportunities are seen.

08:28And as we discussed earlier regarding these market capitalizations, it has usually not been worthwhile to fixate on absolute figures, because in 1970 the world's most valuable enterprise was IBM with a market capitalization of 42 billion dollars. 42 billion dollars is nothing today. Even on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, we have Nokia and Nordea, which are the largest companies. Nvidia's value is 5.5 trillion dollars, meaning 5,500 billion dollars. So based on history, it has not been worthwhile to fixate on those absolute figures. Even though 100 billion is a colossal amount of money or 1 trillion a colossal amount of money, it's just a bubble. These market capitalizations have actually always reached a new peak after a decade when talking about the position of the world's most valuable company. Do you think it makes sense that Nvidia's market capitalization is 5.4 trillion dollars, meaning 80 times that of Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordics? Comment below what you think about these market capitalizations. Thank you very much for watching the video!