The largest American companies are deeply involved in the economy of the United States, as well as the rest of the world. The 20 largest publicly traded US companies, top constituents of the S&P 500 index, are presented here together with their activities, logos, and useful links.
The S&P 500 Index, the broadest American stock index
To measure the performance of American stocks and assess the evolution of the US financial markets and economy, the stocks of the 500 largest publicly listed companies in the United States are aggregated in the S&P 500 index, also more simply known as the S&P.
This capitalization-weighted index, which gives more weight to larger companies, is considered to be one of the best benchmarks for the American stock market, and for the broader US economy.
20. Intel
Sector: Technology – Industry: Semiconductors
Intel Corporation, commonly known as Intel, is a multinational corporation and technology company, especially involved in the production and sales of microprocessors and semiconductor chips powering personal computers. Intel also diversifies in other technologies, including cloud, Internet of Things, computer memory, and 5G-connectivity.
Website: intel.com – Market Cap.: $246.7 Billion – Stock ticker: INTC
19. Home Depot
Sector: Consumer Cyclical – Industry: Home Improvement Retail
The Home Depot Inc. is a retailing company that sells tools, home improvement supplies, construction products, and services. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, also operating in Canada and Mexico.
Website: homedepot.com – Market Cap.: $297 Billion – Stock ticker: HD
18. Bank of America
Sector: Financials – Industry: Banks—Diversified
The Bank of America Corporation, abbreviated as BofA, is a multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with more than 200,000 employees. Tracing its origins to 1784, Bank of America has become an American leader in consumer banking with more than 4,600 branches and 15,900 ATMs. Bank of America also operates in corporate and investment banking, wealth management, and investment management.
Website: bankofamerica.com – Market Cap.: $304.1 Billion – Stock ticker: BAC
17. UnitedHealth Group
Sector: Healthcare – Industry: Healthcare Plans
UnitedHealth Group is the largest healthcare company in the world by revenue, offering diversified health care products and insurance services. It serves clients through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare which provides health care coverage and benefits services, and Optum which provides information and technology-enabled health services.
Website: unitedhealthgroup.com – Market Cap.: $310.9 Billion – Stock ticker: UNH
16. Procter & Gamble
Sector: Consumer Defensive – Industry: Household & Personal Products
Founded in 1837, the Procter & Gamble Company, also known as P&G, is a multinational consumer goods corporation providing a wide range of personal health/consumer health and personal care and hygiene products in the segments of beauty, grooming, healthcare, fabric and home, and baby, feminine and family care.
Website: pginvestor.com – Market Cap.: $311.7 Billion – Stock ticker: PG
15. Paypal
Sector: Financials – Industry: Credit Services
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is a company operating a worldwide online payment system. Providing an electronic alternative to traditional checks and money orders, Paypal helps online vendors and commercial users by supporting online money transfers in exchange for a fee. PayPal had its Initial Public Offering in 2002 before being acquired by eBay, which later separated from it in 2015.
Website: paypal.com – Market Cap.: $320.7 Billion – Stock ticker: PYPL
14. Mastercard
Sector: Financials – Industry: Credit Services
Mastercard Incorporated is a multinational financial services corporation. It is primarily involved in the processing of payments between the merchants’ banks and the card-issuer of customers using a Mastercard brand debit, credit, or prepaid card to make purchases.
Website: mastercard.com – Market Cap.: $338.4 Billion – Stock ticker: MA
13. Disney
Sector: Communication Services – Industry: Entertainment
Founded in 1923, the Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is a diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It is notably involved in film studios through Walt Disney Studios and 21st Century Fox. Other main divisions include Walt Disney parks, experiences and consumer products, Disney Media Networks which owns and operates cable television networks (ABC broadcast network, Disney Channel, ESPN, A&E Networks and Freeform) and the new Disney+ video-on-demand service, notably launched to develop new ways to monetize the company’s content and compete against Netflix, and other VOD services.
Website: thewaltdisneycompany.com – Market Cap.: $348.1 Billion – Stock ticker: DIS
12. Nvidia
Sector: Technology – Industry: Semiconductors
Nvidia Corporation is a company developing graphics processing units – GPUs – for the gaming and professional markets, and “system on a chip” units – SoCs – for the mobile computing and automotive market. It operates the GeForce brand of GPUs, Tegra mobile processors, and expanded in gaming with the Shield brand of handled devices, tablets, and Android TV. Nvidia now also produces chips for supercomputers, especially powering artificial intelligence and scientific research applications.
Website: nvidia.com – Market Cap.: $355.4 Billion – Stock ticker: NVDA
11. Walmart
Sector: Consumer Defensive – Industry: Discount Stores
Walmart Inc. is a multinational retail corporation operating a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue, employing more than 2.3 million people in 28 countries.
Website: walmart.com – Market Cap.: $389.6 Billion – Stock ticker: WMT
10. Johnson & Johnson
Sector: Healthcare – Industry: Pharmaceuticals—General
Johnson & Johnson is a multinational medication, first aid supplies, and consumer packaged goods manufacturing and sales company founded in 1886. Regrouping numerous famous brands, Johnson & Johnson line of products notably include Band-Aid, Tylenol, Johnson’s baby products, Neutrogena, Clean & Clear, and Acuvue.
Website: jnj.com – Market Cap.: $426.1 Billion – Stock ticker: JNJ
9. Visa
Sector: Financials – Industry: Credit Services
Visa Inc., is a multinational financial services corporation facilitating electronic funds transfers throughout the world. It operates payment products that financial institutions use to offer credit, debit, prepaid, and cash access programs to their customers via Visa-branded credit cards, gift cards, and debit cards.
Website: usa.visa.com – Market Cap.: $445.2 Billion – Stock ticker: V
8. JPMorgan Chase
Sector: Financials – Industry: Banks—Diversified
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City. With origins dating back to 1799, JPMorgan Chase has become one of the world’s largest universal banks operating worldwide. It is involved in retail and commercial as well as in investment banking, asset management, private banking, private wealth management, and treasury services.
Website: jpmorganchase.com – Market Cap.: $455.6 Billion – Stock ticker: JPM
7. Berkshire Hathaway
Sector: Financials – Industry: Financial Conglomerates
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a multinational conglomerate holding company. It wholly owns GEICO, Duracell, Dairy Queen, BNSF, Lubrizol, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, Long & Foster, FlightSafety International, Pampered Chef, and NetJets, and also has significant shares of Pilot Flying J, Kraft Heinz Company, American Express, Wells Fargo, The Coca-Cola Company, Bank of America, Apple, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Berkshire Hathaway also acquired a number of smaller companies in a wide variety of industries, including confectionery, retail, railroads, home furnishings, encyclopedias, manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, jewelry sales, newspaper publishing, manufacture and distribution of uniforms, and several regional electric and gas utilities.
Website: berkshirehathaway.com – Market Cap.: $575.6 Billion – Stock ticker: BRK.B
6. Tesla
Sector: Consumer Cyclical – Industry: Auto Manufacturers
Tesla, Inc. is an electric vehicle and clean energy company. It produces electric cars, including sedans, sports cars and pick-up trucks, and electric powertrain components and systems, and related services, as well as energy generation and storage systems including batteries, solar roof tiles, and solar panels through its subsidiary SolarCity.
Website: tesla.com – Market Cap.: $685.8 Billion – Stock ticker: TSLA
5. Facebook
Sector: Communication Services – Industry: Internet Content & Information
Facebook, Inc. is an online social media and social networking service. Originally limited to students, Facebook has gradually opened its services to anyone above 13 years old, reaching now more than 2 billion across the world. It can be accessed through any device connected to the internet and allows users to customize profiles, post text, photos, and multimedia which is shared with their friends on Facebook. They can also join interest groups, receive messages and notifications, and use various other embedded applications.
Website: investor.fb.com – Market Cap.: $741.5 Billion – Stock ticker: FB
4. Alphabet
Sector: Communication Services – Industry: Internet Content & Information
Alphabet Inc. is a multinational technology conglomerate, created from the corporate restructuring of Google, which is now its subsidiary together with several other services. The Google search engine, advertising business, and associated services are the largest part of Alphabet’s activities, with other subsidiaries including Calico (biotechnology), Chronicle (cybersecurity), DeepMind (artificial intelligence), GV (venture capital), CapitalG (private equity), X (R&D), Google Fiber (fiber internet services), Jigsaw (tech incubator), Makani (wind turbines), Sidewalk Labs (urban innovation), Verily (life sciences), Waymo (self-driving tech), Wing (drone-based delivery) and Loon (internet provider via stratospheric balloons).
Website: abc.xyz – Market Cap.: $1,392 Billion – Stock ticker: GOOG / GOOGL
3. Amazon
Sector: Consumer Cyclical – Industry: Internet Retail
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational technology company focused on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It started as an online bookstore that later diversified to a wide array of products. Amazon has become the uncontested leader of e-commerce in the US, and after having expanded to many countries, it has also developed further into brick-and-mortar retail with the acquisition of Whole Foods Market, as well as publishing, electronics, cloud computing, video streaming, and production, among other investments.
Website: amazon.com – Market Cap.: $1,601.7 Billion – Stock ticker: AMZN
2. Microsoft
Sector: Technology – Industry: Software—Infrastructure
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational technology company developing, manufacturing, licensing, supporting, and selling computer software, most notably the Windows operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. It is also involved in consumer electronics with the Xbox video game consoles, touchscreen personal computers with Microsoft Surface, and related services.
Website: microsoft.com – Market Cap.: $1,768.7 Billion – Stock ticker: MSFT
1. Apple
Sector: Technology – Industry: Consumer Electronics
Apple Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets mobile phones and media devices, computers, notably the iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. The company also conceives and sells a range of related software and services: the iPhone OS (iOS), OS X and watchOS operating systems, iCloud, and Apple Pay. Apple also sells accessories, support offerings, and third-party digital content and applications.
Website: apple.com – Market Cap.: $2,184.5 Billion – Stock ticker: AAPL
