Artificial intelligence is electrifying the stock market players: large technology companies from the USA are dominating the world stock exchanges at the end of this year like never before. Apple remains the undisputed number one with a market value of $3.00 trillion (as of December 27th), according to the rankings published by management consultancy EY on Friday. Microsoft moved past Saudi Aramco ($2.14 trillion) into second place with $2.78 trillion. The Saudi Arabian oil company is the only one of the twelve most valuable companies in the world that does not come from the USA. With SAP and Siemens, two flagships of the German economy have made their way back into the “Top 100”. At the end of 2022, no company from Germany was represented there.
“This year, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) in particular has captured the imagination of investors and thus the stock market prices,” says EY Germany boss Henrik Ahlers. It is now clear what economic potential and also what social changes AI brings with it. “Companies operating in this space have become investor darlings.” The graphics chip specialist Nvidia, for example, has more than tripled its market value this year. With $1.22 trillion, Americans jumped from 17th to sixth place in the rankings. The Facebook group Meta has almost tripled its market capitalization and worked its way up from 24th to seventh place with 920 billion dollars. Apple shares rose by 45 percent, Microsoft by 55 percent.
On average, the “top 10” on global stock exchanges have increased in value by 29 percent, and together they are now worth $36.5 trillion. Among them, investor legend Warren Buffett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway is only one US company that does not come from the technology industry. Almost two thirds of the 100 heaviest stock market stocks come from the USA, 19 come from Europe. Before the financial crisis in 2007 there were 46, seven of them from Germany alone. At that time, 32 of the 100 most valuable companies came from the USA, and at the end of 2023 there will be 63. EY manager Ahlers speaks of a “dramatic loss of importance of Europe” on the stock exchanges.
The most valuable company on the Old Continent is now the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which caused a sensation with the development of the weight loss injection “Wegovy” and moved up from 26th to 16th place with a market value of 460 billion dollars. Novo Nordisk displaces the French luxury group LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy) from the top spot in Europe. Although the most valuable German companies do not make it into the “top 10” even in a European comparison, they are at least represented among the 100 most expensive stock market stocks. The Walldorf-based software group SAP moved up from 106th to 61st place with $181 billion – an increase of more than 50 percent. The Munich technology group Siemens is 88th with 148 billion dollars (2022: 115th)
Ahlers believes the AI boom is also an opportunity for companies from Europe. “Especially for a location like Germany, AI can provide positive growth impulses given the shortage of skilled workers and demographic change.” When it comes to AI, Germany doesn’t have to hide. Deutsche Telekom (120 billion, 116th place) and the Munich insurance group Allianz (105 billion, 131st place) also have a market capitalization of more than 100 billion dollars. The car manufacturers Porsche AG (181st place), BMW (233rd) and Volkswagen (261st) are in the lower places, the benchmark in the industry is the US rival Tesla, which is valued at 831 billion dollars, more than ten times as high will be like Porsche. The most valuable company from Switzerland remains the food company Nestlé with 307 billion dollars and 26th place (2022: 23). Roche slips from 31st to 43rd place with $233 billion, Novartis is the only one of this trio to increase its stock market value, but falls back to 52nd place (47th) with $206 billion.