(Yicai Global) Aug. 20 -- Tencent Holdings, China’s most valuable company at USD697 billion, ranked sixth in the 2021 Hurun Global 500 list published yesterday, while Apple took the top spot.

Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Facebook ranked second to fifth, driven in part by the growth in cloud services amid a maturing digital economy, while Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings fell two places to ninth with its value down 18 percent at USD58.6 billion.

The United States dominates the rankings with 243 businesses, while there were 47 companies from China. The cut-off point to make the list was up 15 percent at USD36.6 billion. Total value increased 17 percent to USD58 trillion, with 427 firms seeing their worth rise, while 48 of them were new to the list.

Firms entering the ranking this year were led by Chinese video-sharing platform Kuaishou, which shot straight into the top 200. Of the 48 that dropped out, 11 were from China, including home tutoring platform TAL Education and civil service exam test prep platform Offcn whose share prices have collapsed amid a government crackdown on the edtech sector.

By sector, financial services dominated with 94 companies listed among the Hurun Global 500, followed by healthcare. In terms of fastest-growing industries, a spike in the prices of copper and iron ore, as well as oil, drove up mining and energy company shares. Short videos drove up entertainment value, while traditional carmakers like Toyota Motor and Volkswagen saw their stocks bounce back.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the Hurun Global 500 added USD18 billion or 45 percent. Chinese electric automaker Nio grew the fastest, surging 25-fold to USD66.6 billion, followed by US biotech company Moderna, growing 12-fold to USD104 billion.

“The rumbling US-China trade war has spilled over into an acceleration of a decoupling of the economies, fueling competition for high-tech sectors such as semiconductors,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

“Interestingly, 80 percent of the world’s most successful startups and unicorns, valued at over USD1 billion, are from the US and China, suggesting that these two economies have the lion’s share of the next wave of potential Global 500 companies,” he said.

The Hurun Global 500 list is ranked by value, and excludes state-controlled companies, unlike the Fortune Global 500, which is ranked by sales.

Editor: Peter Thomas