Chinese companies are making waves in global earnings. Chinese companies involved in electric vehicles, healthcare, and e-commerce, in particular were among the world’s 500 most valuable non-state-controlled companies last year, in terms of both market value and numbers, according to Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute.
Led by Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding, 51 Chinese companies are included in Hurun’s inaugural Hurun Global 500 list, which was released last Tuesday. The list ranks companies based on their value as of 1 December. Chinese firms were worth approximately US$5.2 trillion in total.
“Covid-19 put rocket fuel under an already powerful technology boom, resulting in a concentration of massive economic power,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at Hurun.
The Covid-19 pandemic has without a doubt hurt the global economic landscape. However, Chinese companies have proven themselves rather resilient towards this adversity. The Chinese companies on the new list added US$2.2 trillion in value last year, growing by 73 percent, according to Hurun.
Among the top 10 companies on the list, we find the Chinese juggernauts, Tencent and Alibaba, with the remaining eight companies coming from the US. Combined, the two companies are worth over US$1.4 trillion, a staggering amount for two entities to hold.
Chinese electric carmaker Nio was the fastest riser among all companies on the list, climbing 22 times over the previous 12 months to US$61 billion. Other Chinese carmakers such as BYD and Xpeng Motors also showed significant progress, particularly within the electric vehicle market; which, for a while now, has been dominated by Tesla, another company on the top 10 list.
Tesla jumped eightfold over the previous 12 months to US$546 billion and was in ninth place. IPhone maker Apple topped the list with a market value of US$2.1 trillion, followed by Microsoft and Amazon at US$1.6 trillion each, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which was worth US$1.2 trillion.
The four trillion-dollar companies added US$2.6 trillion last year, equivalent to the GDP of India, taking their total value to US$6.6 trillion, or 13 per cent of the 500 companies on the list. The top 10 companies on the list were worth US$10 trillion, making up 20 percent of the Hurun Global 500 and equivalent to more than China’s GDP, Hoogewerf said.