10 Most Profitable Companies in the World

“The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” economist Milton Friedman wrote in 1970, setting off a debate about whether social responsibility or profits ought to outrank the other when evaluating the wider balance sheet of a company. At least among many investors, Friedman has long won that debate, as profit remains the key metric used to measure corporate success.

But every quarter, when the world’s largest companies report their profits, you get more than a snapshot of each company’s performance. Investors look to their profitability to decipher broader economic trends, shifts in global power, and where the future of business might be headed.

Below, we reveal the 10 most profitable companies in the world by 12-month trailing (TTM) net income, according to TradingView.

Note: Why We Use Net Income to Measure Profits

The public companies below are organized by net income—also called the “bottom line”—rather than other profit measures like gross profit or operating income because it’s what’s actually left after all expenses, taxes, and costs are paid. While gross profit shows how much a company makes after covering the direct costs of producing its goods or services, net income gives investors a clearer picture of how much money a company actually keeps from all its business activities.

For instance, a tech company might show massive gross profits but then spend so much on research and development, marketing, and taxes that its net income is relatively modest. Other measures like EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) can be useful for comparing companies’ operational performance, but net income remains the most straightforward way to answer the simple question: How much money did the company actually make?

Let’s now answer that question for you:

Founded as an offshoot of Standard Oil, Aramco has evolved into a global behemoth, pumping and refining oil and gas with an efficiency that keeps production costs strikingly low.

Beyond fossil fuels, Aramco’s influence extends into the chemicals market since they produce everything from essential industrial compounds to synthetic materials—it’s likely something in your vicinity has at least some part made from the massive oil deposits under Saudi Arabia. As the most profitable oil company worldwide, Aramco is often the target of efforts to combat climate change and transition to cleaner energy sources.

Under Warren Buffett’s six decades of legendary leadership, Berkshire Hathaway has long been synonymous with successful investing. While the company owns many subsidiaries like GEICO and Duracell, as well as sizable stakes in companies like the Coca-Cola Co. (KO) and American Express Co. (AXP), many look to Berkshire almost like a giant portfolio model for clues to how to best balance their own much more modest holdings.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is a financial colossus. One of the world’s largest banks, it serves hundreds of millions across corporate and personal finance, extending its reach from bustling Chinese cities to global markets. Over the last few decades, much of China’s monumental economic growth has been serviced through ICBC.

Whether handling mega infrastructure deals or offering everyday banking services, ICBC symbolizes China’s economic ambitions and the proximity of that country’s major companies to the state. Sensitive to shifts in the Chinese economy, ICBC has been facing early-to-mid-2020s problems from China’s real estate recession and the ensuing economic slowdown.

As Google’s parent company, Alphabet owns the world’s most widely used search engine—it processes over 100,000 searches each second. From detailing the locales of our globe with Google Maps to the billions it reaches on YouTube, Alphabet is a dominant force in our digital world.

The company has not been sitting still. Its pursuits in artificial intelligence are already greatly shifting its core search business. Its ubiquity is its strength but also the reason U.S. and EU regulators have charged it with monopolistic practices—a U.S. court in August 2024 ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by maintaining an illegal monopoly in search.

Apple is best known for its series of iPhones, iPads, and Mac personal computers, but after a less-than-thrilling reception for its Vision Pro headset and stumbles in producing electric vehicles, it’s been trying to amp up the already significant percentage of its profits it gets from its services. From the App Store to Apple Music to Apple Pay, it’s built a digital world that many millions of people seem to barely leave during a given day.

For regulators worldwide, that’s because many consumers are trapped: Apple has faced significant legal scrutiny in both the U.S. and the EU, with antitrust investigations targeting its App Store practices, including allegations of stifling competition.

Once considered an aging giant slowly fading into irrelevance, Microsoft’s market cap and profits have shot up in recent years, powered by smart moves in AI, video game systems, and other lucrative businesses. Its products include the operating system still behind the computer many American workers log into daily. Beyond Windows, the company produces Xbox, Teams video calls, and LinkedIn networking. Its cloud platform, Azure, is like a massive digital backbone running everything from Netflix streaming to online banking. Still one of the world’s most visible companies, it’s now more often invisibly powering much of what’s done online today.

Meta Platforms is much more than just Facebook and Instagram—though that already makes it one of the most consequential companies on the planet. Through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta connects almost half the world’s population, handling billions of messages, photos, and videos daily. The company has had a volatile year. Meta’s aggressive push into the metaverse was central to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans just a few years ago, and now the word seems all but forbidden in earnings calls.

Meta’s move into AI and stellar rise year-over-year net income has attracted the loyalty of many investors—anytime its stock price drops, it seems buyers rush in to push the stock to new price highs soon after.

JPMorgan is a giant in global finance, with a place in many key financial projects in U.S. history—it helped fund the Erie Canal. Today, it offers everything from consumer banking to complex corporate advisory services, making it an essential gear in the financial world’s engine; it processes a third more in transaction value each day than the annual budget of the U.S.

Given its size and outspoken CEO, Jamie Dimon, it’s said when JPMorgan talks, markets listen—which also makes JPMorgan an occasional focal point of discussions about banking reform.

China Construction Bank (CCB) is one of China’s four biggest banks and has played a crucial role in building modern China. CCB helped transform China from a largely rural country to one with more high-speed rail than the rest of the world combined. For millions of Chinese citizens, CCB is where they get their first credit card or save for their future. Whenever you see pictures of China’s dramatic skylines and massive infrastructure projects, CCB likely helped finance them.

Thus, the company is more than a go-to lender for Chinese construction firms; it operates less as a traditional bank than a development fund.

10. Agricultural Bank of China (ACGBY)

The Agricultural Bank of China, or AgBank, is a Chinese state-owned multinational banking and financial services corporation. It offers individuals and enterprises a range of services, including deposits, loans, bill discounting, and currency trading. AgBank is based in Beijing but has branches all over the world. While it plays a major role in China’s financial development—it’s got more branches in rural China than all the banks in the U.S—it faces the same major challenges as China’s other lenders, given the billions in unpaid loans left in the wake of the real estate collapse there.

The Bottom Line

The world’s most profitable companies reflect both global economic power shifts and evolving industry trends. U.S. companies dominate the list with six spots, demonstrating America’s 2020s leadership in technology and financial services, while China’s presence through its major state-backed banks is a sign of its economic might.

Saudi Aramco’s position at the top underscores the continuing importance of energy resources, even as tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet show how digital transformation drives modern profits. These rankings, however, can shift significantly based on market conditions, regulatory changes, and global economic factors, making them a snapshot of corporate success rather than a permanent hierarchy.