What do these industrial giants operating outside the US market, one of the largest economies, do and where do they come from?

Oil companies, technology companies, banks, retailers, home and personal care product producers; pharmaceutical companies, food, beverage, and tobacco companies; conglomerates; aircraft manufacturers. The list of sectors to which the largest firms in the world operating outside the United States market belong is much longer and encompasses new areas of the economy and production, according to the ranking published by Visual Capitalist on its website.

While China leads the ranking of the 50 most powerful firms, with at least 12 of these industrial giants among that group of companies , the largest by far is Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned energy and chemical company, the largest in the world in its sector and one of the most profitable and valuable globally.

According to the portal, which based its ranking on data from the Forbes Global 2000 (annual revenue and profits) up to April 2025, and from Companiesmarketcap.com, as of August 5, 2025, in the case of market capitalization, at this specific point Aramco has a market capitalization of $1.6 trillion, $400 billion more than Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturer TSMC, which occupies second place on that list with a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion.

Aramco reported profits of around $480 billion and revenues of $105 billion, consolidating its position as the undisputed leader in this global ranking of business giants, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the only other non-US company with a valuation of over $1 trillion. It is the world's largest chipmaker, headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Five Chinese companies are among the 10 largest in market capitalization in the ranking. Tencent, one of the world's largest groups in internet services, video games, and entertainment, founded in 1998, is in third place; followed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest by assets, in fourth place; and in seventh place is the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the Big Four banks in the People's Republic of China, founded in 1951 and headquartered in Beijing.

A notable feature of Visual Capitalist's ranking is the conglomerate ranked 15th: International Holding Company (IHC), a conglomerate based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with diversified investments in sectors such as food and beverages, healthcare, agriculture, finance, technology, and real estate.

In Colombia, this business empire gained relevance because, together with the Gilinski family, they managed to promote the shareholding disestablishment that had been maintained for more than 46 years between the Sura, Nutresa and Argos groups , which ended just a few weeks ago and allowed Colombian investors, together with their Arab partner, to take over Grupo Nutresa, one of the largest food producers and processors in Latin America. .

In the retail and technology segment, Alibaba stands out with a market value of $282.1 billion and annual revenues of around $136.4 billion, ranking eighth in this ranking.

Luxury brands and chipmakers are dominating. Outside of China, two groups stand out for their extremely high price-to-sale multiples: European luxury brands and East Asian semiconductor companies, the analysis highlights.

French Hermés (12), for example, is trading at more than 50 times its earnings, driven by consumer boom and strict brand control.

Within this classification are other highly recognized companies in the Colombian market, many with operations in the country, such as Roche laboratories, which occupies position 13 in the ranking, with a market value of 253.1 billion dollars; Toyota, in position 17 and AztraSeneca (19), a global pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom, two places lower.

Also appearing are L'oreal (20()), Nestlé (21) and Novartis (22), the latter being the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company founded in 1996 from the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz.

Further down in this same classification are companies such as Shell (26), Siemens (29) and Xiaomi (33), a Chinese technology company dedicated to the manufacture of smartphones, consumer electronics and an intelligent hardware platform connected by IoT (Internet of Things), founded only in 2010.

In the last positions of the ranking are other emblematic companies recognized in Colombia, such as the giant aircraft manufacturer Airbus (38), Accenture, a leading multinational company in professional services (40), the insurance company Allianz (41), Unilever (43), a British multinational, born from the merger of two companies, dedicated to the production of beauty and wellness products, personal and home care, and food and beverages, and Sony (44).