In the grand theatre of global markets, the years drift by like fleeting acts of a well-rehearsed play. Time itself moves with the swiftness of a hawk, leaving behind a trail of new names, bold ambitions, and those inevitable disappointments we call ‘obsolescence’. Children mature, technologies fall to the wiles of progress, and corporations, once untouchable, are dethroned with the grace of a monarch sent into exile.
Of all these transformations, it is the shifting of market empires that commands the most attention. The titans of the past, those who once loomed large in the corporate firmament, now find themselves displaced, overthrown by companies that fit more comfortably with the demands of a new era. The slow unraveling of this process may have escaped the eye of the casual observer, yet it is the very essence of what keeps the market alive, forever changing, forever in flux.
Then and Now
Let us briefly step into the past-a year once so distant it now seems like an echo. In 2010, the biggest companies, measured by their market capitalization, were heralded as giants of industry. Yet, their reign would be brief, and their places soon taken by the new heralds of the digital age.
| Company | Market Cap 2010 |
|---|---|
| ExxonMobil (XOM) | $314.2 billion |
| Microsoft (MSFT) | $260.1 billion |
| Apple (AAPL) | $209.4 billion |
| Walmart (WMT) | $208.7 billion |
| Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) | $200.9 billion |
One glaring absence from this list is General Electric-once the colossus that overshadowed all in its path. Yet, as the industrial age surrendered to the digital one, so too did GE fade into irrelevance. By 2010, consumer technology was the stage upon which the world’s wealth was being earned, and Amazon-by then a mere sprout-began to demonstrate its supremacy. The winds of change, like an invisible current, had shifted the market’s centre of gravity.
Fast forward to the present, and one finds a landscape dramatically transformed. The giants of the digital epoch have arisen, built on the foundations of computing power, artificial intelligence, and the insatiable hunger of consumers who, like the hungry ghosts of legend, consume without end.
| Company | Market Cap As of Aug. 5, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Nvidia (NVDA) | $4.35 trillion |
| Microsoft | $3.92 trillion |
| Apple | $3.01 trillion |
| Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) | $2.36 trillion |
| Amazon | $2.28 trillion |
Investors’ Obsession with Market Size
Ah, the ceaseless fascination investors have with the market capitalization of companies. They revel in watching these colossal entities inch towards ever-greater heights, like a child intoxicated by the prospect of the highest swing. But let us not be deceived. Bigger, in the world of markets, is not synonymous with better. After all, one may boast of owning a thousand diamonds, yet the true value of a gem is not in its number but in its unique brilliance. So it is with stocks-returns are not merely the result of size, but of a far more delicate and complex calculus.
The allure of growth, however, is universal, for as we all know, the path to riches is paved with the illusion of progress-one that, for better or worse, captivates us all. 💸
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2025-08-09 03:27