EY Study: US Corporations Dominate Stock Markets – Germany Only Has Siemens Left in the Top 100

Eight of the ten most valuable companies in the world come from the US, including the new entrant Elon Musk's SpaceX, which landed at rank six with a market cap of 2.25 trillion dollars shortly after its IPO. Apart from the US, only Taiwan with chipmaker TSMC and Saudi Arabia with oil giant Saudi Aramco (1.681 trillion dollars) are represented in the Top 10.

Historic Shift on the World's Stock Markets

The EY study thus illustrates the shift in the balance of power on global stock exchanges. "We are currently experiencing a historic shift in the balance of power on the world's stock markets," said Ahlers. The combined market cap of the world's 100 largest companies has risen by 18 percent since the beginning of the year to 61.9 trillion dollars; the major tech corporations alone gained 30 percent to 35.2 trillion dollars – driven by the AI boom.

Germany Slips Down: Only Siemens Left in the Top 100

For Germany, the results are sobering: Only the Munich-based DAX company Siemens still makes the list of the Top 100 most valuable stock corporations with a market cap of 247 billion dollars – at rank 72. At the beginning of the year, two other German corporations, SAP and Allianz, had made it into the ranking; meanwhile they have fallen back to ranks 114 and 115.

Ahlers sees this as a warning signal: "The fact that Germany, as the world's third-largest economy, is represented by only one company in the Top 100 must concern us." He also warned that Europe must be careful not to "again structurally fall behind in a key technology." He cited the fragmented capital markets in Europe and a weaker venture capital culture as the main braking factors.

Other European companies also appear only at the margins of the Top 100. The first European company in the ranking is Dutch chipmaker ASML with a market cap of 756.8 billion dollars at rank 20. Overall, 56 companies from the US, twelve from China, and five each from the UK and Japan make the Top 100.

Europe's Frontrunner: ASML at Rank 20

Within Germany itself, however, there are also bright spots: Semiconductor manufacturer Infineon climbed in the ranking from rank 401 to rank 185 and doubled its market cap to 121 billion dollars. Siemens Energy improved from rank 168 to rank 128 with a market cap of 162 billion dollars. This catch-up shows that individual European firms can indeed benefit from the AI and tech trend.

The market cap of Amazon – which, alongside Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft, belongs to the five front-runners – further rounds off the dominance of the US tech giants. Behind the US and China, Europe and Germany in particular continue to lag behind in terms of benchmark index valuations – a trend that the EY study describes as a "historic shift."

Risks of High AI Valuations

The valuation differences between the US technology corporations and other industries are enormously large. While Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Co. reach valuations in the trillion-dollar range, even the largest German industrial corporations operate in the significantly lower mid-double-digit billion range. This gap illustrates how wide the distance between the US tech heavyweights and the European real economy has become.

The EY analysis also points out that the high valuations of AI-driven companies are based on expectations of future profits. Should the AI boom weaken or returns fall short of expectations, valuation premiums could shrink again – which would then quickly change the composition of the Top 100 as well.

Overall, the study paints a picture of an increasingly divided stock market world: on the one hand, a handful of US technology corporations with trillion-dollar valuations; on the other, companies from Europe whose market caps often account for only a fraction of that. For the political debate about strengthening European capital markets, the EY survey thus provides new material for discussion.

The study was produced by consulting firm EY and disseminated via dpa-AFX in Frankfurt. The publication comes at a time when investors are asking whether the current AI cycle will further reinforce the already high concentration at the top of the stock markets, or whether new competitors – including from Europe – can close the gap.