Taipei: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is now ranked ninth among the world's 100 most valuable companies after its market capitalization more than doubled over the past year, PwC Taiwan has said in a report.
According to Focus Taiwan, TSMC's market capitalization surged 101 percent year-on-year to US$1.427 trillion as of March 31. This information was detailed in the "2026 Global Top 100 Companies by Market Capitalization" report released in May by the accounting and consulting firm. TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, rose from 12th to ninth in the rankings, recorded as the fastest-growing entity among the global top 10.
TSMC's remarkable growth positioned it as the only Taiwanese company in the top 100, elevating Taiwan from seventh to fourth among economies represented, following the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia. Lin Yi-fan, chief markets officer at PwC Taiwan, attributed TSMC's market value doubling to strong demand for artificial intelligence devices and semiconductors, which propelled the company into the global top 10 and advanced Taiwan's global economic standing.
Lin emphasized Taiwan's critical role in the global technology supply chain but also warned of the risks of relying heavily on a single industry. Despite the semiconductor and AI supply chains driving growth, Lin cautioned that long-term market value growth might face challenges due to semiconductor cycle fluctuations, underscoring the necessity to diversify Taiwan's industrial landscape.
Globally, the combined market capitalization of the top 100 companies reached a record US$51.8 trillion, marking a 22 percent increase from the previous year. This growth significantly outpaced the 7 percent increase recorded last year. Driven by the global AI boom and sustained semiconductor demand, Nvidia Corp. surpassed Apple Inc. to become the world's most valuable company, with a market capitalization of US$4.237 trillion.
The report identified the top 10 companies by market capitalization as Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Saudi Aramco, Broadcom Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., TSMC, and Tesla Inc. It also noted the dominance of the information technology sector among the global top 100 companies, with total market value rising 34 percent to US$18.69 trillion.
In contrast, the financial sector saw a modest growth of 6 percent, affected by interest rate cuts and geopolitical uncertainties impacting profitability and investor sentiment. The report pointed to the materials and industrial sectors as some of the fastest-growing sectors, with market capitalization boosts of 84 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Benefiting from recent geopolitical developments and a shift of capital away from software companies, investor preference increasingly favored "Heavy Asset, Low Obsolescence" (HALO) businesses, as highlighted in the PwC report.