Top 10 Largest Technology Companies by Revenue
For the longest time ever, Silicon Valley was home to the world’s tech giants, and with good reason. All big tech companies were located there. The story today is, however, quite different.
Although many of the largest tech companies are in the USA, there are several additions to the list. Many of these foreign companies are now overtaking tech giants, as we have known them in the past.
So, what are the largest tech companies by revenue? This list includes the top 10 global leaders and some insight into the companies. Keep reading to find out more.
- Apple Inc.
Founded in April 1976 by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak, Apple Inc. is a global tech company that has its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The company is well-known globally for its electronics, computer software, and other online services. It is, together with Amazon, Facebook, and Google considered one of the Big Four Companies.
Apple went public in 1980, a factor that contributed to the young company’s success. The development of the Mackintosh in 1984 was mainly a significant milestone for the company, and it skyrocketed sales. Power struggles within the company’s executive saw Wozniak depart amicably, while Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne resigned and moved to start a different company, NeXT. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The introduction of the cheaper Microsoft Office and Intel products in the ’90s led to Apple’s downfall. Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997 as the CEO and remained in the position till 2011 when he resigned for health reasons. He died two months later, leaving the company under Tim Cook as the CEO.
Apple Inc.’s greatest success has been the iPhone, which Steve Jobs launched in 2007. Given that people tend to stay with their phones longer nowadays, the company is losing market with the iPhone products. However, the company still generates a steady income revenue from applications, cloud services, software, and other hardware products, including smartwatches.
The company’s Q4 2019 results show that it generated sales worth $260.174 billion, which was a decrease from 2018’s $265.595 billion. Apple has about 137,000 employees, and the company’s market cap is estimated at $1260.488 billion.
Apple Inc. has its shares (AAPL) listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, where they are currently selling at $288.08.
- Samsung Electronics
Although American companies have dominated the list of the biggest tech companies for a year now, Samsung, a South Korean-based company, has been a strong contender for the last decade. The launch of the Galaxy series smart phoned gave the company quite a cutting edge, making it Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone market. The two companies have been in a 7-year court battle over smartphone patents.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has its headquarters in Suwon and was founded in 1969. It was then primarily concerned with electronics and electrical appliances. Today, the company has grown to include other technological components such as image sensors, chips, and lithium-ion batteries.
Samsung is today the largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips after surpassing Intel in 2017. It also boasts of being the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones and televisions.
Samsung Electronics is a conglomerate of the parent company, Samsung, that deals with a variety of businesses across various industries. Besides the electronics company, other notable subsidiaries of the conglomerate include Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T, which both deal with construction and Samsung Heavy Industries that handle the company’s shipbuilding industry.
The company plays a significant role in South Korea’s economy. The conglomerate company produces around a fifth of the country’s exports.
From the company’s financial statement for the fiscal year 2019, Samsung Electronics made revenue worth $188.9 billion. The company is one of the largest employers in the tech industry, with about 309,630 employees. As of November 2019, the company’s market value was $298.68 billion.
- Foxconn
Foxconn Technology Group is the name that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. uses for trading purposes. The Taiwanese company has its headquarters in Tucheng, New Taipei City, and is an international electronics contract manufacturer. This means that Foxconn only manufactures electronics while under contract with a specific firm. Some notable clients are Nokia, Xbox One, and Nintendo 3DS.
Terry Gou, who is a businessman, started the company in 1974. However, the company did not have its manufacturing plant until 1988, when it opened one in China.
The company’s most significant breakthrough happened in 2001 when Intel contracted Foxconn to manufacture its motherboards. In 2007, Foxconn decided to expand its business by building a new manufacturing plant, still in China. Today, the company has plants all over Asia, with a few others in Mexico, Europe, and Brazil.
The company has made several acquisitions to expand its operations. Most notable are Sharp Corporation, which is a Japanese electronics company, and Asia Pacific Telecom.
Foxconn’s primary focus is on four key technologies; data tech, analytics tech, platform tech, and operations tech. The company maximizes its expertise in cloud computing, AI, smart networks, and mobile devices to expand its capabilities in the tech areas.
Because the company is also interested in robotics and automation, it entered into a partnership with Tencent and Harmony New Energy Auto in 2016. The partnership’s primary goal is to develop a car startup, Future Mobility. The startup aims to sell fully autonomous premium cars by the end of this year.
Hon Hai Precision has a market cap of $38.72 billion and ha around 667,680 employees. As of 2019, the company’s revenue stood at $175.617 billion and has its shares listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
- Alphabet Inc.
Following a restructuring in the company’s operations in 2015, Google rebranded itself to Apple Inc. The latter is Google’s parent company and owns most of Google’s side projects and subsidiaries.
Larry Page and Sergey, who co-founded Google, assumed executive positions following the restructuring in 2015. Larry became Alphabet’s CEO while Sergey assumed the position of president. The two, however, resigned in December 2019, and Alphabet Inc’s current CEO is Sundar Pichai, who also doubles up as Google’s CEO.
The move in 2015 was necessary to make Google service ‘cleaner and more accountable.’ With the creation of Alphabet Inc., the executives aimed to improve transparency in the company operations and also allow unrelated companies to have greater control. The company operations now fall under two segments; Google and Other Bets. While Google is concerned with the vital internet products such as Google Play, YouTube, and Google Cloud, Other Bets’ focus lies in the sales of services through Nest and Verily. It also manages Goggle Maps, Google Photos, and Google Assistant.
Besides Google, the conglomerate also comprises of Fiber, a high-speed internet provider, Calico, Google’s life-extension company, and Nest, which is the company’s smart home project.
Alphabet Inc still trades under Google’s former ticker symbols, GOOG and GOOGL, and even retained the stock history.
GOOGL trades on NASDAQ and is currently selling at $1408.78. The company’s market cap is $969.308 billion and generated revenue worth $161.857 billion in the last fiscal year. Alphabet Inc currently has over 118,000 employees.
- Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation came to be following the partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. The two childhood friends had been trying their hand at starting a business using their computer programming skills. Before they founded Microsoft, Gates and Allen had set up Traf -O-data in 197, which aimed to collect traffic data and create reports for traffic engineers.
Microsoft Corporation has its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The company is well-known globally for its software, electronics, and other related services. The most notable products are the operating systems under Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Suite, and the browsers Edge and Internet Explorer.
Microsoft’s dominant market is the IBM PC compatible operating system. The company also generates significant revenue from the Office Suites market. However, Android has long since surpassed the company in the overall operating system market.
In 2019, Microsoft reached the trillion-dollar market valuation mark. This saw the company become the third US company to hit the milestone after Apple and Amazon.
Microsoft Corporation has its MSFT shares listed on NASDAQ and is currently selling at $170.69. Its current market capitalization is valued at $1295.23 billion, with total revenue of $125.502 billion during the last fiscal year. Microsoft has about 144000 employees in total.
- Huawei
Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in 1987. The company’s aim at the time was to manufacture phone switches in a bid to improve the country’s underdeveloped telecom infrastructure. Today, Huawei has expanded its operations to include the manufacture of communication devices, build telecommunications networks, among other services.
Currently, the company is owned solely by its employees. The employee shareholding scheme involves about 96,768 employee shareholders from the nearly 194000 employees that the company has.
Huawei has 36 joint innovation centers and 14 research and development institutes. The company currently operates in about 170 countries, where it offers its telecom products and services. In 2012, Huawei overtook Erickson to become the largest global manufacturer of telecommunication-equipment. The company became the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones behind Samsung Electronics after surpassing Apple Inc.
Following the trade war between China and the US, President Trump banned Huawei from conducting business with Us companies. The ban saw Huawei cut jobs in the Santa Clara research center and later move the center to Canada.
Huawei is yet to publish its 2019 fiscal report. However, Ren revealed that the company registered revenue worth $122 billion in 2019 and a 25.1% increase in the net profit. Although the ban slowed down the company’s progress, Ren believes that they can survive with or without the US. As of May 2019, the company’s brand value was $8 billion.
- Dell Technologies
In 2016, the merger between Dell and EMC Corporation gave rise to Dell Technologies. The merger involved the companies issuing $45.9 billion in debt and common stock worth $4.4 billion.
The multinational technology company has its headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, and its focus is on developing personal computers, servers, computer software, televisions, and computer security services.
Company operations fall under two primary categories. Dell Client Solutions handles computer products under the Dell brand. These products include desktops, tablets, printers, monitors, etc.
Dell EMC Infrastructure, on the other hand, handles the storage solutions for the company. Dell Technologies also operates other businesses such as VMware that provide cloud computing services and SecureWorks Inc., which offers information security services, among other companies.
Dell Technologies went public in 2018. However, instead of offering an IPO, the company bought back the shares that tracked VMware’s financial performance. The company had gone private in 2013 to focus on selling its products to big enterprises.
Dell Technologies has its shares listed on NYSE. It is currently selling them at $45.35. For the fiscal year 2019, Dell generated revenue worth $90.6 billion, 50% of which was from the United States only. As of February 2020, Dell’s market cap is $33.73 billion and about 157,000 employees.
- Hitachi
Hitachi Limited is a conglomerate company that has its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese multinational company operates about eleven businesses in different industries, such as construction machinery and IT systems.
The brains behind Hitachi was Namihei Odaira, who was an electrical engineer. Namihei started Hitachi in 1910 and developed Japan’s first 4-kilowatt induction motor, which was the company’s first product.
The company suffered significant losses during World War II. Many of its factories were burned down, and the disagreements arose in the executive after the war. The company went public in 1949 and tried to rebuild itself. The 1950 labor strike, however, hindered Hitachi’s efforts to re-establish itself.
The Korean War allowed the company to get back to its feet. The American Military gave Hitachi several defense contracts. The company established the American branch in 1959 and later expanded to Europe in 1982.
Over the years, Hitachi has expanded its business operation. Some of the products and services that the company offers include automotive systems, defense systems, power systems, and financial services.
Currently, Hitachi has about 295,941 employees. In the fiscal year 2009, Hitachi generated revenue worth $85.507 billion. The company’s current market cap is $34.42 billion.
- IBM
The International Business Machines Corporation was started in 1911 by Charles Flint and Thomas Watson. The company was then named Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and had its headquarters in New York, which is still the case.
When starting, the company manufactured machinery for sale and lease. These machines included meat processors, tabulators, punch cards, and industrial time calculators. The company has since expanded its business operations into manufacturing computer software, middleware, and hardware. IBM is also a research company and offers hosting and consulting services as well.
IBM has had some significant innovations that changed the tech industry. Its most notable products include the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, SQL programming language, and the ATM.
IBM is one of the largest employers in the world and has over 350,000 employees, with 70% of them being outside the US.
IBM shares are listed on NYSE and currently, sell at $139.75. During the fiscal year 2019, the company managed to generate $77.1 billion, which was a 3.1% decrease from the previous years’ revenue. The company expects free cash flow of $12.5 billion this year, and its current market cap is $125.5 billion.
- Sony
Sony Corporation is a diversified business conglomerate that has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s business operations include electronics, gaming, entertainment, and other financial services. These services all fall under Sony’s four segments, namely electronics, motion pictures, music, and financial services.
Sony began in 1946 as an electronics shop in a department store. The founder Masaru Ibuka started with around eight employees. Today, the company has about 144,400 employees in total. The company still keeps the original founding prospectus, which has been handed down over the years to the company’s executives.
Over the years, Sony has been competing with other giants in the industry. Since 2015, the company has been the fifth largest manufacturer of televisions after Samsung, LG, TCL, and Hisense. Sony Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, is the largest music entertainment business in the world. The company also owns the largest video game console business in the world.
Sony’s current market cap is $79.52 billion. During the last fiscal year, the company generated sales worth $78.319 billion. Sony shares currently sell at $63.94 on the NYSE.
The technology industry is a significant player in the world economy. Thanks to ever-advancing technology, we can only expect new innovations from tech companies. As consumer preferences for tech keep changing, we should expect the list of the top 10 largest tech companies to keep changing as well, as these tech giants try to stay ahead of the competition.