5 companies that could hit a $4 trillion market cap after Nvidia

Yesterday, Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) became the first company to surpass a $4 trillion market capitalization. The AI chip giant did so on the strength of its position in the artificial intelligence race that has been sweeping the globe. Nvidia makes the graphics cards and other computing infrastructure that power AI platforms.

A company’s market capitalization, or “market cap,” is determined by adding up the total value of all the shares in that company. As of yesterday, when you added up Nvidia’s total shares, you got a value of more than $4 trillion.

But Nvidia isn’t the only company that will likely cross this $4 trillion milestone. Here are other companies that are close—or relatively close—to the $4 trillion market valuation mark, as of the close of the market yesterday, according to stock market data from Yahoo Finance.

Microsoft 

Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) closed at $503.51 per share yesterday, bringing the company’s market cap to just north of $3.7 trillion.

This makes the Windows maker the second-most valuable company, only behind Nvidia. Of course, like all the companies on this list, its stock price’s current and past performance are no predictor of where the company’s valuation goes next.

Still, as of the time of this writing, Microsoft is less than $300 billion in value away from becoming the world’s second $4 trillion company.

Apple

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) was the first public company in history to cross the $1 trillion, $2 trillion, and $3 trillion market cap marks. Currently, it ranks third in the world’s most valuable public companies.

Yesterday, the company’s shares closed at $211.14, giving Apple a market cap of just over $3.1 trillion. That means Apple is about $900 billion in value shy of a $4 trillion market cap.

While this brings Apple closer in value to $4 trillion than the rest of the companies on this list, the $900 billion gap means Apple’s stock price will need to rise by nearly 25% to reach a $4 trillion market cap.

The closest Apple has ever come to this threshold is a market cap of $3.9 trillion last year—nearly there.

Amazon

The e-retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is next closest to a $4 trillion market cap. But first, it’s got to pass the $3 trillion mark, too.

As of yesterday’s close at $222.54, Amazon has a market capitalization of approximately $2.3 trillion. This means the stock needs to nearly double in value to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization.

Alphabet (Google)

Right behind Amazon is Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), owner of Google. The search giant’s share price closed at $177.66 yesterday, giving it a market cap of just over $2.1 trillion.

Again, that makes it one of the most valuable companies ever, but it also means that Alphabet still needs to pass the $3 trillion mark before it can hope to achieve a $4 trillion valuation, matching Nvidia’s.

Meta

Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) is the next closest U.S. company to a $4 trillion valuation. However, it is currently a long way from reaching that milestone.

The company’s shares closed at $732.78 yesterday, giving it a market cap of just over $1.8 trillion. That means Meta shares need to more than double to reach a $4 trillion valuation.

Road to $10 trillion?

That any public company would have a trillion-dollar market cap once seemed unimaginable.

But then on August 2, 2018, Apple did just that, becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar company. It took 37 years, 7 months, and 21 days to reach that milestone after its initial public offering on December 12, 1980.

Apple’s next trillion dollars came much faster. On August 19, 2020, Apple became the first company to surpass a $2 trillion market capitalization. It added that extra trillion in valuation in just 2 years and 17 days. Then, just 2 years, 10 months, and 11 days later, Apple became the first company to cross a $3 trillion market cap.

Since Apple first became a 12-figure company in 2018, many other U.S. companies have surpassed this milestone. That includes Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, and Broadcom.

What’s remarkable about Nvidia’s rise to the most valuable publicly traded company ever is that while it took Nvidia just over 24 years to cross the $1 trillion market cap in June 2023, it took the company a mere 2 years and change to cross the $4 trillion mark. That’s an addition of another $3 trillion in market capitalization in less than 25 months.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that Nvidia stays above the $4 trillion market cap mark. Yet, the rate at which the biggest tech companies are increasing their market caps in recent years suggests that, if things continue on the same trajectory, the world may very well see its first $10 trillion company (or companies) before this decade is over.