The total combined market capitalization for the top 10,427 publicly traded companies surged past $116 trillion as US markets opened on May 13. This marks the largest turnaround in at least the past two years as rapidly rising Silicon Valley stocks propel markets toward the global all-time high of $117.69 trillion reached on February 17 after reaching a one-year low in early April.
The catalyst for the swift turnaround appears to be renewed market vigor established by the loosening of trade tensions between the US and China alongside recently announced investment commitments made during US President Donald Trump’s visit with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump secures $600 billion Saudi deal, markets surge up to $1 trillion
As we recently reported, Saudi Arabia has committed to invest more than $600 billion in US industry and infrastructure. The funds will be spread out across multiple sectors, with more than $100 billion earmarked for technologies such as artificial intelligence and data centers.
According to the White House, the deal with Saudi Arabia also includes “the largest defense sales agreement in history —nearly $142 billion, providing Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms.”
Trump also enacted a total reset on trade tariffs against China earlier in the week. Reports say that “the U.S. will slash tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China will drop its tariffs on U.S. exports from 125% to 10%.”
The markets were quick to respond, with almost $1 trillion in total global market capitalization added in the 24 hours since. This tide has largely risen on the gains seen by the so-called “magnificent seven,” Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla.
As of the time of this article’s publication, the total global market cap hovered at about $116.15 trillion, up from the previous 24-hour’s high of $115.27 and climbing towards the all-time unadjusted high of $117.69 trillion set on February 17, 2025, according to CompaniesMarketCap.
Silicon Valley does the heavy lifting
The largest gains in the global top 20 firms by market cap have come from the aforementioned magnificent seven, alongside related chipmakers Broadcom and TSMC, who saw a combined 24-hour increase of about 9% (5.665 and 3.34% respectively). Tesla, up 1.25%, reentered the trillion-dollar territory for the first time since late February, while Nvidia leapfrogged Apple to reclaim $3 trillion and the number two overall slot with a whopping gain of 6.2% over the last 24 hours.
Holding steady at the top is Microsoft, with a market cap of $3.31 trillion. It and Berkshire Hathaway are the only firms in the top 10 to see losses for the day at –0.22% and -0.14%, respectively.
At the midday point for US markets, the global total appears poised to surpass the previous all-time high established in February. Not only would this mark the largest turnaround in recent market history, going from a $100.32 trillion low on April 8 to a current May 13 high of $116.15, it would also represent the fastest gain, having done so in just five weeks.
