Tech companies in particular were chasing records on the stock exchanges in 2023. Many of the world’s most valuable companies are based in the United States. But Germany is also represented in the top 100.
This year, two German companies made it into the 100 most expensive listed companies in the world: According to calculations by the auditing and consulting company EY, the software manufacturer SAP ended up with a market value of a good 181 billion dollars (around 162.6 billion euros) as of December 27th in 61st place (previous year: 106). According to EY information, Siemens climbed from 115th to 88th place within a year with a market value of almost $148 billion. At the end of 2022, no German company was ranked among the top 100.
According to the analysis, the boom in the tech industry led to the USA’s dominance becoming further consolidated: 62 (previous year: 61) of the 100 most expensive companies in the world are based in the USA, among the ten most expensive companies in the world nine are located in the United States.
Undisputed leader: Apple
In first place like a year before: The tech company Apple, which now has a market value of more than three trillion dollars. This is followed by Microsoft (around $2.8 trillion) and the Saudi Arabian oil production company Saudi Aramco (around $2.1 trillion). According to the list, the most valuable European company is currently the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in 16th place ($460 billion).
Overall, the market value of the 100 most expensive listed companies in the world increased by 29 percent over the course of the year, reaching a new high of over $36.5 trillion.
“This year, the topic of artificial intelligence in particular has stimulated the imagination of investors and thus the stock market prices,” said the chairman of the EY management board, Henrik Ahlers, classifying the results. “Companies operating in this space have become investor darlings.”
Europe is gaining some weight
According to the analysis, Europe’s importance on the world stock exchanges increased slightly over the past year from a low level: 19 European companies were able to place themselves among the top 100, three more than a year earlier. However, in 2007, before the global financial crisis, 46 of the 100 most valuable companies in the world were based in Europe and only 32 in the USA.
“In the past two decades we have seen a dramatic decline in Europe’s importance, while the USA has overtaken Europe,” stated Ahlers. The European capital market is currently “much too fragmented,” and the hurdles to raising capital via the stock exchange are too high, especially for young, aspiring companies.
Source: Stern
