Europe only second league

“Megatrend”: AI boom boosts listed companies

The topic of artificial intelligence is a "megatrend".

(Bild: zhenliu - stock.adobe.com)

The boom in artificial intelligence continues to drive up the value of the 100 most valuable listed companies in the world. In the first six months of the year, it rose by 17 percent to 42.3 trillion US dollars - a record high.

This is the result of an analysis by the auditing and consulting firm EY, which is available to the German Press Agency. The cut-off date for the survey was June 28. At the top of the ranking is Microsoft with a value of 3.32 trillion US dollars. The software group is therefore worth 77 percent more than all DAX companies combined. At the end of June, the 40 largest stock corporations in Germany had a total market capitalization of 1.87 trillion US dollars.

Apple took second place in the ranking, followed by the chip group Nvidia. The latter increased its market capitalization by almost 150% in the first half of the year, from USD 1.22 trillion at the end of 2023 to USD 3.04 trillion. Other semiconductor manufacturers such as TSMC (10th place) and Broadcom (11th place) also made strong gains. At the end of June, a total of 26 technology companies were ranked among the top 100.

"Gigantic value creation"
"Artificial intelligence is a megatrend that is reshaping the business world at breathtaking speed, firing the imagination of investors and boosting share prices," said Henrik Ahlers, Chairman of the EY Management Board. AI technologies would lead to drastic changes in all industries and also in private life in the future. "This will be associated with gigantic value creation."

Europe only in the "second league" when it comes to AI
However, it is primarily US companies that are benefiting from the enthusiasm of many investors for AI. Only a few European companies are currently playing a significant role. These include the Dutch chip supplier ASML, the German software group SAP and the British chip designer Arm. They all made up significant ground in some cases and have a combined market capitalization of 812 billion US dollars. However, they are up against 18 tech giants from North America, which together are worth 16.5 trillion US dollars.

Ahlers: "Europe is currently largely playing in the second league when it comes to AI and has a lot of catching up to do". The pace of development is so rapid that there is a risk of being left behind. Although there are some promising AI start-ups in Europe, they are not listed on the stock exchange and are far behind the US top dogs in terms of turnover.

Continuous loss of importance
The AI boom could further strengthen the dominance of US companies on the global stock markets. At the end of June, 60 of the 100 most expensive companies were from the United States. 19 came from Europe. By comparison: in 2007, 46 were from Europe and 32 from the USA.

"Over the past two decades, we have seen a steady decline in Europe's importance," said Ahlers. The majority of Europe's top companies are not active in the technology sector and are therefore hardly benefiting from the AI boom. There is therefore little to suggest that Europe will be able to reverse this trend in the coming years.