Apple becomes first global brand to cross $1tr mark

Nvidia, this year’s top riser, soars 178% compared to 2023 rankings and jumps 18 places this year

Naushad K. Cherrayil

BENGALURU: Apple has become the first brand to cross the $1 trillion mark in brand value, a 15 per cent jump from last year, according to Kantar’s BrandZ report.

The iPhone maker retained its crown as the world’s most valuable brand for the third straight year in 2024, followed by Alphabet’s Google at $753 billion and Microsoft at $713 billion.

Meanwhile, the other members of the top five – Google, Microsoft, Amazon and McDonald’s – all reprised their 2023 placements.

Within the elite group, Microsoft posted the highest year-on-year growth at 42 per cent while all the other brands in top five posted double digit growth.

AI enthusiasm

“Enthusiasm over AI and a greater return to profitability has breathed new life into Facebook, Oracle and Nvidia, this year’s top riser and sixth most valuable brand,” the consultancy firm said.

Nvidia has risen 178 per cent compared to 2023 rankings and has jumped 18 places this year.

“What really sets Nvidia apart is the faith that retail and institutional investors alike have in the firm’s centrality to the biggest disruptive narratives in tech,” the consulting company said.

But when it comes to the market capitalisation, Apple is at $3.28 trillion, followed by Microsoft at $3.26 trillion and Nvidia at $3.06 trillion.

This year, the top ten brands on Kantar’s BrandZ list is worth 50 per cent of the top 100 overall, capturing a combined value of more than $4 trillion as the rest of the brands put together.

Oracle, which offers AI-powered cloud services, also made its debut in Kantar’s top 10 at the ninth place. Its brand value jumped 58 per cent to $145 billion.

Indian brands in top 100

Kantar said its research covered over 4.3 million consumer interviews in 532 categories, and 21,000 different brands in 54 markets.

Among the biggest year-on-year value change after Nvidia is Instagram (ranked 13th) by 93 per cent, followed by Facebook by 79 per cent, Adobe (ranked 19th) by 66 per cent .

Among the Indian brands in the top 100 list, Tata Consultancy Services has fallen by four places to rank 46th. Its brand value has changed seven per cent year on year to $44,790 million, followed by HDFC Bank at 47th place with $43,260 million while Airtel jumps three places from last year to 73rd.

Airtel’s brand value jumps 13 per cent year on year to $25,263 million.

Infosys falls eight places to 74th. Its brand value falls six per cent to $24,686 million.