Richest Company in the US 2026
The conversation around the richest company in the US in 2026 has taken a dramatic and historic turn — and it all points to one name: NVIDIA Corporation. Once known primarily as a chipmaker for video gamers, NVIDIA has evolved into the most valuable company not just in the United States, but on the entire planet. As of February 2026, NVIDIA’s market capitalization stands at approximately $4.51 to $4.56 trillion, comfortably placing it above longtime heavyweights like Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft. This seismic shift in the corporate wealth landscape is not a fluke — it reflects a fundamental transformation in the global economy, where artificial intelligence infrastructure has become the most critical resource for businesses, governments, and researchers worldwide.
What makes NVIDIA’s rise as the richest company in the US in 2026 even more compelling is the sheer pace of its ascent. Just three years ago, NVIDIA was trading well below the trillion-dollar club. By fiscal year 2025 (ending January 2025), it had posted $130.5 billion in annual revenue, up an astonishing 114% year-over-year. In Q3 of fiscal year 2026 alone (ending October 2025), the company reported a record $57 billion in quarterly revenue. These numbers speak to a company operating at a level of financial scale and velocity that few corporations in American history have achieved. The demand for NVIDIA’s flagship Blackwell GPU architecture has outstripped supply, cementing the company’s role as the central artery of the global AI boom.
Interesting Facts About the Richest Company in the US 2026
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| NVIDIA became the world’s first $4 trillion company | NVIDIA first crossed the $4 trillion market cap milestone in July 2025, the first company in history to do so |
| Revenue jumped from $26.97B to $130.5B in two years | NVIDIA’s U.S. revenue was $26.97 billion in 2024; by fiscal 2025, total revenue had reached $130.5 billion |
| AI chip demand outstrips supply | CEO Jensen Huang stated publicly that Blackwell GPU demand exceeds supply by several quarters |
| 36,000 employees generate $4.1M revenue per person | NVIDIA employed 36,000 people as of fiscal year 2025 with revenue per employee of approximately $4.1 million |
| Data Center revenue overtook Gaming by 780% | NVIDIA’s Data Center segment generated $115.19 billion in FY2025 vs. gaming’s $11.35 billion |
| Stock split in June 2024 | NVIDIA executed a 10-for-1 stock split effective June 7, 2024 to make shares more accessible |
| Jensen Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993 | NVIDIA was founded in April 1993 in California by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem |
| NVIDIA surpassed Apple and Microsoft as #1 | As of early 2026, NVIDIA’s market cap surpassed both Apple ($3.94T) and Microsoft ($3.53T) |
| Q4 FY2026 revenue guidance of $65 billion | NVIDIA projected $65 billion ± 2% revenue for Q4 of fiscal year 2026 (quarter ending ~January 2026) |
| Returned $37B to shareholders in 9 months | During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, NVIDIA returned $37 billion via buybacks and dividends |
Source: NVIDIA SEC Filings (Form 10-K, 10-Q), NVIDIA Investor Relations Press Releases — investor.nvidia.com; nvidianews.nvidia.com; SEC EDGAR (edgar.sec.gov)
NVIDIA’s status as the richest company in the US in 2026 is not just about a market cap figure on a screen — it reflects a complete restructuring of what Wall Street values most. The fact that a single company has crossed the $4 trillion threshold — a milestone no other business in history had ever reached — tells the story of how AI infrastructure has become a generational economic force on par with the internet revolution. The company’s ability to generate over $4 million in revenue per employee while maintaining a workforce of just 36,000 people is a remarkable indicator of capital efficiency and technological leverage that has simply never been seen before at this scale.
What is equally striking is how quickly this transformation happened. NVIDIA was valued at roughly $350 billion as recently as early 2023. The leap from that valuation to more than $4.5 trillion by early 2026 represents one of the most rapid accumulations of corporate value in global financial history. It took Apple more than 500 days to go from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in market cap; NVIDIA did it in just 180 days. These are not abstract financial statistics — they are evidence of an AI infrastructure buildout so urgent and so capital-intensive that entire nations and the world’s largest cloud providers are essentially in a race to secure NVIDIA hardware.
Top 10 Richest Companies in the US 2026 by Market Cap
| Rank | Company | Market Cap (Feb 2026) | Sector | HQ State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NVIDIA | ~$4.51–4.56 Trillion | Semiconductors / AI | California |
| 2 | Apple | ~$3.94–3.95 Trillion | Consumer Technology | California |
| 3 | Alphabet (Google) | ~$3.82–3.83 Trillion | Technology / Advertising | California |
| 4 | Microsoft | ~$3.53 Trillion | Software / Cloud | Washington |
| 5 | Amazon | ~$2.49 Trillion | E-Commerce / Cloud | Washington |
| 6 | Meta Platforms | ~$1.6–1.7 Trillion | Social Media / AI | California |
| 7 | Berkshire Hathaway | ~$1.1–1.2 Trillion | Financial / Insurance | Nebraska |
| 8 | Broadcom | ~$1.0–1.1 Trillion | Semiconductors | California |
| 9 | Tesla | ~$900B–$1.0 Trillion | Automotive / Energy | Texas |
| 10 | JPMorgan Chase | ~$700–750 Billion | Banking / Finance | New York |
Source: AlphaSense Real-Time Market Cap Rankings (alpha-sense.com); The Motley Fool Market Cap Data as of Feb 17, 2026 (fool.com); Capital.com Market Cap Data as of Feb 17, 2026 — based on SEC filings and EDGAR public company disclosures
The top 10 richest companies in the US in 2026 paint a picture that is overwhelmingly dominated by California-based technology firms. Seven of the ten entries on this list are technology or technology-adjacent businesses, and six of them are headquartered in California alone. NVIDIA sits comfortably at the top, but the clustering of Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Broadcom in the top eight shows just how completely the tech sector has come to define American corporate wealth in 2026. Eleven companies globally now hold market caps above $1 trillion, with the majority being US-listed firms — a fact that underlines American dominance of the global capital markets in the AI era.
What is also significant here is the contrast between traditional industries and tech. Berkshire Hathaway at position seven is the lone representative of the old-economy conglomerate model, while JPMorgan Chase is the only purely financial institution in the top ten. Tesla’s inclusion is itself a reflection of how the boundaries between technology and traditional sectors are dissolving. The total combined market capitalization of just the top five US companies exceeds $18 trillion — a number greater than the entire GDP of the European Union. This concentration of wealth at the top of the US corporate hierarchy is unprecedented in peacetime economic history.
NVIDIA Revenue Statistics in the US 2026
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Full-Year Revenue (Fiscal 2025) | $130.5 Billion | FY2025 (ending Jan 26, 2025) |
| YoY Revenue Growth | +114% | FY2024 → FY2025 |
| Q3 FY2026 Revenue (Record) | $57.0 Billion | Quarter ending Oct 26, 2025 |
| Q3 FY2026 YoY Growth | +62% | vs. Q3 FY2025 |
| Q2 FY2026 Revenue | $46.7 Billion | Quarter ending Jul 27, 2025 |
| Q4 FY2026 Revenue Guidance | $65.0 Billion (±2%) | Quarter ending ~Jan 26, 2026 |
| Data Center Revenue (FY2025) | $115.19 Billion | FY2025 |
| Gaming Revenue (FY2025) | $11.35 Billion | FY2025 |
| Automotive Revenue (FY2025) | $1.69 Billion | FY2025 |
| Professional Visualization (FY2025) | $1.88 Billion | FY2025 |
Source: NVIDIA Newsroom Official Press Releases (nvidianews.nvidia.com); SEC EDGAR Form 10-K Filing (FY2025) — nvda-20250126; SEC EDGAR Form 10-Q (Q3 FY2026) — nvda-20251026
NVIDIA’s revenue trajectory as the richest company in the US in 2026 is unlike anything seen in the technology sector in recent memory. The jump from roughly $60 billion in FY2024 to $130.5 billion in FY2025 — a 114% increase — represents one of the largest single-year revenue gains in absolute dollar terms ever recorded by a US-listed corporation. The Data Center segment, which generated $115.19 billion in FY2025 alone, now accounts for approximately 88.27% of NVIDIA’s total revenue. That is not just a product line — it is an empire. When a single business segment generates more revenue than many Fortune 500 companies combined, it signals a structural economic shift, not just a business cycle.
The quarterly numbers reinforce this dominance. Q3 of fiscal year 2026 saw $57 billion in revenue, up 22% from Q2 and 62% from the same quarter a year earlier. The company’s guidance of $65 billion for Q4 FY2026 suggests the pace is not slowing. Meanwhile, Gaming — NVIDIA’s historical core business — brought in a solid $11.35 billion for FY2025, up 9% year-over-year, with Q3 FY2026 gaming revenue reaching $4.3 billion, up 30% from the prior year period. Automotive is also emerging as a meaningful contributor, having risen 55% to $1.69 billion in FY2025 as partners like Toyota adopt NVIDIA’s DRIVE platform for next-generation vehicles.
NVIDIA Earnings and Profitability Statistics in the US 2026
| Metric | Value | Period / Source |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP EPS (FY2025) | $2.94 per diluted share | FY2025 (+147% YoY) |
| Non-GAAP EPS (FY2025) | $2.99 per diluted share | FY2025 (+130% YoY) |
| GAAP EPS (Q3 FY2026) | $1.30 per diluted share | Quarter ending Oct 26, 2025 |
| Gross Margin (Q3 FY2026, GAAP) | 73.4% | Quarter ending Oct 26, 2025 |
| Gross Margin (Q3 FY2026, Non-GAAP) | 73.6% | Quarter ending Oct 26, 2025 |
| Net Income Q2 FY2026 | $26.4 Billion | Quarter ending Jul 27, 2025 |
| Profit Per Employee | ~$2.1 Million | Based on FY2025 annual results |
| Revenue Per Employee | ~$4.1 Million | Based on FY2025 data, 36,000 employees |
| Quarterly Cash Dividend | $0.01 per share | Ongoing (record ~Dec 4, 2025) |
| Shareholder Returns (9 months FY2026) | $37 Billion | Buybacks + dividends, first 9 months FY2026 |
Source: NVIDIA Newsroom Earnings Press Releases (nvidianews.nvidia.com/news); SEC EDGAR Form 10-Q Q3 FY2026 (edgar.sec.gov); SEC EDGAR Form 10-K FY2025
Profitability statistics for the richest company in the US in 2026 are as impressive as the revenue figures. NVIDIA’s GAAP gross margin of 73.4% in Q3 FY2026 is extraordinary for a hardware company — most semiconductor firms operate in the 40–55% gross margin range. This is a reflection of NVIDIA’s pricing power: its AI chips are in such high demand that the company can command premium pricing with almost no competitive pressure at the high end. Net income of $26.4 billion in a single quarter (Q2 FY2026) surpassed what the entire company earned in all of fiscal year 2023. That statistic alone demonstrates how explosively profitable the AI era has been for NVIDIA.
The profit per employee figure of ~$2.1 million is another staggering number that places NVIDIA in a class almost entirely by itself. For comparison, many large banks and industrial companies generate less than $100,000 in net income per employee. NVIDIA’s figures are driven by an extremely capital-light workforce relative to the scale of its operations — the company outsources chip fabrication to TSMC, meaning it can scale revenue dramatically without proportionally increasing headcount. The return of $37 billion to shareholders in just the first nine months of FY2026 reflects a company that is generating more free cash than it can immediately deploy, positioning it as one of the most shareholder-friendly businesses in American corporate history.
NVIDIA Market Cap Milestones in the US 2026
| Market Cap Milestone | Date Achieved | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| $1 Trillion | May 2023 | Crossed amid early AI infrastructure boom |
| $2 Trillion | February 2024 | Achieved in just 180 days from $1T milestone |
| $3 Trillion | June 2024 | Briefly surpassed Apple as #1 |
| $4 Trillion | July 2025 | First company in history to reach $4 trillion |
| ~$4.51–4.56 Trillion | February 2026 | Current valuation as of Feb 17–18, 2026 |
Source: The Motley Fool (fool.com, data as of Feb 17, 2026); Investing.com Academy (February 2026); AlphaSense Real-Time Rankings (alpha-sense.com, February 2026)
The market cap milestones of the richest company in the US in 2026 tell a story of velocity and scale that no other company in American history has matched. It took NVIDIA just 180 days to go from a $1 trillion to a $2 trillion market cap — a pace that dramatically outpaced Apple and Microsoft, which each required more than 500 days to cover that same distance. The crossing of the $4 trillion mark in July 2025 made NVIDIA the first corporation in the history of global financial markets to reach that figure, underscoring just how much investor confidence has been placed in the future of AI compute infrastructure.
The jump from the $3 trillion range in mid-2024 to the $4.5+ trillion range by early 2026 reflects how the Blackwell GPU architecture launch in FY2025 fundamentally reset investor expectations for NVIDIA’s earnings power. With quarterly revenues now approaching and projected to exceed $65 billion, and with no credible competitor able to challenge its position in the near term, the market is pricing in continued dominance. Some analysts see NVIDIA’s long-term addressable market — spanning AI training, inference, data centers, autonomous vehicles, and sovereign AI — as ranging from $3 trillion to $4 trillion annually within the next five years, according to CEO Jensen Huang’s own projections discussed on investor calls.
NVIDIA Workforce and Employee Statistics in the US 2026
| Metric | Value | Year / Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total Global Employees | 36,000 | Fiscal Year 2025 (Jan 2025) |
| YoY Employee Growth | +21.62% | FY2024 (29,600) → FY2025 (36,000) |
| Americas-Based Employees | ~49.9% | FY2025 |
| Engineering / Technical Staff | ~65–67% of workforce | FY2025 |
| Gender Split (Male) | ~80–81% | FY2025 |
| Annual Employee Turnover Rate | ~2.5% | FY2025 (well below industry average) |
| Revenue Per Employee | ~$4.1 Million | Based on FY2025 data |
| Profit Per Employee | ~$2.1 Million | Based on FY2025 data |
| Stock-Based Compensation | $4.74 Billion | FY2025 |
| Market Cap Per Employee | ~$90–111 Million | Estimated 2025–2026 |
Source: NVIDIA Corporation SEC Form 10-K Annual Report FY2025 (edgar.sec.gov/nvda-20250126); MacroTrends.net NVIDIA Employee Count Data; Stockanalysis.com NVDA Employees Data
NVIDIA’s workforce statistics reveal a company that is exceptionally lean relative to the wealth it creates. With just 36,000 employees globally, NVIDIA generates revenue and market value that would be the envy of corporations employing ten times the headcount. The market cap per employee metric of approximately $90 to $111 million is effectively unmatched among large-cap US corporations, and reflects how the combination of fabless manufacturing (outsourcing chip production to TSMC), proprietary software ecosystems like CUDA, and dominant market positioning can amplify the economic output of every individual worker. The 21.62% headcount growth from FY2024 to FY2025 shows that the company is expanding rapidly, yet this growth still trails far behind its revenue growth of 114% in the same period.
The turnover rate of just 2.5% — significantly below the tech industry average which typically ranges from 10–20% — is telling. It suggests NVIDIA has built a culture and compensation structure compelling enough to retain talent even as competitors aggressively recruit AI engineering talent. The $4.74 billion in annual stock-based compensation plays a major role here, effectively aligning employees with the company’s extraordinary share price performance. This workforce model, combining high pay, strong retention, a lean headcount, and fabless production, has allowed NVIDIA to operate with the kind of financial efficiency that most CEOs can only dream of — and it is a central reason why it sits atop the rankings as the richest company in the US in 2026.
NVIDIA vs. Top Rivals — Richest Companies Comparison in the US 2026
| Company | Market Cap (Feb 2026) | FY Revenue (Latest) | Employees | Primary Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | ~$4.51–4.56 Trillion | $130.5B (FY2025) | 36,000 | AI / Semiconductors |
| Apple | ~$3.94–3.95 Trillion | ~$391B (FY2024) | ~150,000 | Consumer Electronics |
| Alphabet | ~$3.82–3.83 Trillion | ~$350B (CY2024) | ~181,000 | Search / Advertising / Cloud |
| Microsoft | ~$3.53 Trillion | ~$245B (FY2024) | ~228,000 | Software / Cloud / AI |
| Amazon | ~$2.49 Trillion | ~$620B (CY2024) | ~1.5 Million | E-Commerce / Cloud |
Source: AlphaSense Real-Time Rankings (alpha-sense.com); The Motley Fool Largest Companies by Market Cap (fool.com, data as of Feb 17, 2026); Company Investor Relations and SEC Annual Reports
The comparative table of the richest companies in the US in 2026 reveals one of the most remarkable productivity contrasts in modern business history. NVIDIA, with just 36,000 employees, commands a market capitalization of over $4.5 trillion — a figure that exceeds Microsoft’s market cap while Microsoft employs more than 228,000 people, over six times NVIDIA’s headcount. Amazon, with a market cap of roughly $2.49 trillion, employs approximately 1.5 million people — that is more than 41 times NVIDIA’s workforce for a market capitalization that is less than 55% of NVIDIA’s. This stark contrast illustrates precisely why NVIDIA has captured Wall Street’s imagination and investor capital: the company achieves extraordinary valuation with a workforce model and capital intensity that no other large-cap tech firm can replicate.
Revenue comparisons are equally revealing. Amazon’s $620 billion in annual revenue dwarfs NVIDIA’s $130.5 billion, yet NVIDIA’s market cap is nearly double Amazon’s. This is because the stock market prices companies based on future earnings potential and margin profile, not just raw revenue. NVIDIA’s 73%+ gross margins and the expectation that AI infrastructure demand will compound for years to come means investors are willing to pay far more per dollar of revenue for NVIDIA than for any other company on this list. Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet each sit in the $3.5–3.95 trillion range, meaning NVIDIA leads the pack but the gap is not insurmountable — making 2026 a genuinely competitive year for the title of richest company in the US, with all four top companies representing some of the most consequential technology enterprises in human history.
NVIDIA Data Center Dominance — Richest Company Revenue Breakdown in the US 2026
| Business Segment | FY2025 Revenue | YoY Growth | % of Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Center | $115.19 Billion | +142.37% | 88.27% |
| Gaming | $11.35 Billion | +8.64% | 8.70% |
| Professional Visualization | $1.88 Billion | — | 1.44% |
| Automotive | $1.69 Billion | +55.27% | 1.30% |
| OEM & Other | $389 Million | +27.12% | 0.30% |
| Total | $130.50 Billion | +114% | 100% |
Source: NVIDIA Corporation Form 10-K Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2025 (SEC EDGAR: nvda-20250126.htm); Bullfincher NVIDIA Revenue by Segment breakdown sourced from SEC filings
The segment breakdown of the richest company in the US in 2026 makes one thing absolutely clear: NVIDIA’s wealth and dominance are built almost entirely on the foundation of a single business line — Data Center. At $115.19 billion and representing 88.27% of total revenue, the Data Center segment grew by a staggering 142.37% in FY2025 alone. This growth was driven by the insatiable demand for NVIDIA’s Hopper and Blackwell GPU architectures from cloud providers, hyperscalers, sovereign AI programs, and enterprises racing to build AI training and inference infrastructure. The scale of this one segment — generating more revenue than the entire company did just two years prior — illustrates why NVIDIA has captured the market cap throne.
Gaming, historically NVIDIA’s defining identity and revenue engine, is now a distant second at $11.35 billion and just 8.70% of total revenue. Even so, the Gaming segment grew 8.64% in FY2025, and Q3 FY2026 Gaming revenue of $4.3 billion was up 30% year-over-year, suggesting the RTX 50 series product cycle is re-energizing consumer spending. The Automotive segment’s 55.27% growth to $1.69 billion is also noteworthy — while small today, the adoption of NVIDIA DRIVE platforms by manufacturers like Toyota signals that a third major revenue pillar may be forming. Meanwhile, Professional Visualization at $1.88 billion and Automotive at $1.69 billion together add meaningful diversification that rounds out the profile of the richest company in the US in 2026.
NVIDIA AI Infrastructure — Key Technology Stats in the US 2026
| Technology / Metric | Data Point | Detail / Context |
|---|---|---|
| Installed Base of AI-Capable NVIDIA PCs | 100+ Million | RTX AI-enabled PCs globally as of FY2025 |
| RTX AI-Enabled Applications & Games | 700+ | As of early FY2025 launch cycle |
| Data Center Compute Revenue Growth (9 months FY2026) | +59% YoY | First 9 months FY2026 vs. same period FY2025 |
| Data Center Networking Revenue Growth (9 months FY2026) | +105% YoY | Driven by NVLink for GB200 Blackwell systems |
| H20 Export Charge (Q1 FY2026) | $4.5 Billion | Charge related to US export control into China |
| GPU Market Share in AI Training | ~80%+ | NVIDIA’s estimated dominance in AI training compute |
| CUDA Ecosystem Developer Adoption | Industry standard | Programming lock-in across virtually all AI frameworks |
| Q3 FY2026 Data Center Revenue | $51.2 Billion | Record single-quarter data center revenue |
| Announced AI Factory GPU Projects (Q3 FY2026 call) | 5 Million GPUs | Aggregate of AI factory projects announced in one quarter |
Source: SEC EDGAR Form 10-Q Q3 FY2026 (nvda-20251026.htm); NVIDIA Newsroom Q3 FY2026 Earnings Release (nvidianews.nvidia.com); TechCrunch Nvidia Q3 FY2026 earnings report (techcrunch.com, Nov 19, 2025)
The technology infrastructure underlying the richest company in the US in 2026 is as impressive as its financial metrics. NVIDIA’s CUDA software ecosystem — a programming framework that has been adopted as the de facto standard for AI development across virtually every major AI research lab, cloud provider, and enterprise AI platform — represents a moat that is arguably as valuable as any physical asset on the company’s balance sheet. When developers train AI models, they write code in CUDA. When those models run at scale, they run on NVIDIA hardware. This software-hardware lock-in is the same kind of ecosystem dominance that made Windows and iOS so durable, except in NVIDIA’s case the switching costs in the enterprise AI space are even higher.
The data center networking business growing 105% year-over-year in the first nine months of FY2026 is particularly significant and often overlooked in headline coverage. As AI workloads scale to clusters of tens of thousands of GPUs, the interconnects and networking fabric that ties those GPUs together become critical — and NVIDIA’s NVLink and Spectrum-X Ethernet solutions are rapidly claiming this market as well. The announcement of 5 million GPUs worth of AI factory projects in a single quarter illustrates the extraordinary infrastructure buildout underway globally, with NVIDIA at the center of it all. These are not short-lived trends — the companies and governments commissioning these builds are making decade-long commitments to NVIDIA’s architecture, providing a durable revenue foundation for the richest company in the US in 2026 well into the next decade.
Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

