Nvidia surpasses the economy of Germany and 19 EU countries combined / Five US tech giants beat the big European powers
The market capitalization of Nvidia, the American semiconductor company whose chips power video games and AI systems, reached $5.7 trillion and surpassed Germany's GDP of $5.45 trillion, according to EuroNews.com.
The rapid growth of large technology firms in recent years has changed the balance of economic power. Currently, the combined value of the five largest US companies is greater than the combined GDP of the top five European economies.
Nvidia has already overtaken Japan and the UK, and is now overtaking Germany's economy. The German state represents the third largest economy in the world and the largest in Europe, with a gross domestic product estimated at 5.45 trillion dollars for the year 2026.
The United States remains the world's largest economy at $32.38 trillion, followed by China at $20.58 trillion, according to data from the International Monetary Fund and stock market data from CompaniesMarketCap as of May 2026.
As Germany is Europe's largest economy, Nvidia's advance means the firm is now larger than any individual European state. This includes the UK with a GDP of $4.26 trillion, France with $3.6 trillion, Italy with $2.74 trillion and Spain with $2.09 trillion.
Nvidia exceeds the combined GDP of 19 EU countries
Tech giants Alphabet (€4.12 trillion) and Apple (€3.75 trillion) are also bigger than any European economy except Germany. France (€3.08 trillion) surpasses Microsoft (€2.61 trillion) and Amazon (€2.46 trillion) in economic size. However, both companies still exceed Italy's GDP (€2.35 trillion).
The combined GDP of the EU's 19 smallest economies totals $5.02 trillion (€4.3 trillion), dwarfing Nvidia's market cap of $5.7 trillion (€4.88 trillion).
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined Donald Trump's visit to China. In March, Huang said growing demand for artificial intelligence could push Nvidia's sales to $1 trillion within two years.
Five US tech giants beat European powerhouses
The combined market capitalization of the five largest US companies — Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon — is $20.81 trillion (€17.84 trillion). This figure exceeds the combined GDP of the five largest European economies — Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain — which totals $18.14 trillion (€15.55 trillion).
No European company comes close in size to the American tech giants. Dutch chip maker ASML is the continent's best-ranked firm, ranking 21st with a market capitalization of $610.69 billion (€523.66 billion).
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche follows at the top, with a capitalization of $335.1 billion (287.44 billion euros), and AstraZeneca, based in Great Britain, located at $286.84 billion (246 billion euros).
But market capitalization and GDP measure different things. GDP reflects the total value of goods and services produced by an economy in a year. In contrast, market capitalization represents the market value of a company's capital and reflects investors' expectations about its future earnings and growth prospects. Even so, the figures highlight the massive proportions these companies have today, notes EuroNews.com.
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
