Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is now ranked ninth among the world’s 100 most valuable companies after its market capitalization more than doubled over the past year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said in a report last month.
TSMC’s market capitalization surged 101 percent year-on-year to US$1.427 trillion as of March 31, the accounting and consulting firm’s 2026 Global Top 100 Companies by Market Capitalization report said.
The gain catapulted the world’s largest contract chipmaker from 12th place to ninth in the rankings, and it was the fastest-growing among the global top 10, it said.
Photo: EPA
TSMC was the only Taiwanese company among the top 100, but its market capitalization gains lifted Taiwan’s ranking from seventh to fourth among economies represented in the top 100, trailing only the US, China and Saudi Arabia.
PwC Taiwan chief markets officer Lin Yi-fan (林一帆) said TSMC’s market value doubled due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices and semiconductors, pushing the company into the global top 10 while elevating Taiwan to fourth place worldwide.
The result underscored Taiwan’s indispensable role in the global technology supply chain, Lin said.
However, he cautioned that Taiwan’s heavy reliance on a single industry presented risks.
While the semiconductor and AI supply chains remained key growth drivers, long-term market value growth could be vulnerable to fluctuations in the semiconductor cycle, highlighting the need to diversify the nation’s industrial structure, he said.
Globally, the combined market capitalization of the top 100 companies reached a record US$51.8 trillion, up US$9.211 trillion, or 22 percent, from a year earlier, far exceeding the 7 percent growth recorded in the previous year, the report said.
Driven by the global AI boom and sustained demand for semiconductors, US chip designer Nvidia Corp overtook Apple Inc for the first time to become the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of US$4.237 trillion, it said.
The top 10 companies by market capitalization were Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc, Saudi Aramco, Broadcom Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, TSMC and Tesla Inc.
Information technology remained the dominant sector among the global top 100 companies, with total market value rising 34 percent to US$18.69 trillion, the report said.
By contrast, the financial sector recorded growth of just 6 percent, reflecting the impact of interest rate cuts and geopolitical uncertainty on profitability and investor sentiment.
The report also highlighted the materials and industrial sectors as among the fastest-growing sectors this year, with their market capitalization increasing 84 percent and 42 percent respectively.
Benefiting from geopolitical developments and a shift of capital away from software companies, investor preference has also increasingly tilted toward “heavy asset, low obsolescence” businesses, the report said.
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