On January 31, the Hurun Research Institute today released the "2023 Hurun Global 500", which lists the world's top 500 non-state-owned enterprises, ranked according to their market capitalization or valuation. The market capitalization of listed companies is calculated based on the closing price on October 31, 2023, and the valuation of non-listed companies is estimated with reference to listed companies in the same industry or according to the latest round of financing.
It is understood that among the world's top 500 companies on the list, 337 companies have increased in value, of which 48 are newly listed. 163 companies fell or remained unchanged in value, and another 48 companies were off the list. 56% of companies are direct-to-consumer and 44% are B2B companies. 53% of companies sell physical products, and 47% sell software and services. In terms of value, five industries account for half of the Hurun Global 500, led by financial services, followed by consumer goods, software and services, healthcare, and retail. On average, each company is worth 760 billion yuan, has annual sales of 360 billion yuan, has 88,000 employees, and has been established for 68 years.
Looking specifically at the list, Apple topped the list with a value of 19,229 billion yuan, with an increase of 12%, although Microsoft is not as good as Apple, but its value has increased by as much as 39%, and the momentum is very strong. Google's parent company Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia rounded out the top five, with Nvidia benefiting from the development of generative AI, whose value skyrocketed by 225%, making it the highest-growing company in the top 10.
Among the Chinese companies on the list, TSMC ranks tenth on the list with a value of 3,707 billion yuan, and it is also the only Chinese company in the top ten. Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Pinduoduo are among the top five Chinese companies.
In terms of the geographical distribution of companies, the United States is undoubtedly the most on the list, accounting for 261 of the top 500. China came in second with 33, but the number dropped by two. The countries followed were Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. In terms of city distribution, New York, London and Tokyo ranked the top three with 30, 20 and 16 respectively. In China, Beijing and Shenzhen tied for tenth place on the list with seven.