Brand Finance‘s recently released figures highlight how AI technology has propelled Nvidia up its list of the 500 biggest companies in the world. The US chip company ranked in fifth place in the 2026 edition of the Brand Finance Global 500, up four places on its prior ranking and enough to overtake Facebook and Walmart.
Brand Finance attributed Nvidia’s run to its heavy involvement with AI, a technology the specialist company’s chair and CEO David Haigh said is experiencing surging demand.
The executive noted Nvidia rival Intel is not capitalising to the same extent, being “increasingly perceived as playing catch-up” in the AI race. By contrast, AMD’s brand is following the same trajectory as Nvidia’s. But Haigh said Intel is not out of the running. Rather it faces a “critical challenge” in exploiting an increase in brand strength during 2025.
Brand Finance valued Nvidia’s moniker at $184.3 billion at end-2025, up 110 per cent year-on-year.
Apple retained the title of the world’s most-valuable brand, up 6 per cent to $607.6 billion, Microsoft ranked second on $565.2 billion (up 23 per cent) and Google third on $433.1 billion (up 5 per cent).
Open AI made its first entry on Brand Finance’s list, an appearance the company stated highlights the speed with which AI-native organisations are becoming leading names.
Amazon held fourth on Brand Finance’s list; TikTok and Chinese variant Douyin rose one place to sixth; Samsung fell six to eighth; and Facebook one to ninth.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: Nvidia
