What are the five largest companies in the world? This ranking based on market cap includes Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon. Although the order of the names may change, the group appears to be relatively stable, comprising the giants' names that are renowned in the whole world. This article will give you an overview of the five top companies by market cap at the end of 2021.

Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos' story could have possibly happened nowhere else than in Silicon Valley, which is renowned as a hub for innovation, tech talents, software companies, unicorns and even at times fraud. Numerous startup founders are flocking into Silicon Valley with the hope of changing the world by building another Facebook or Google.

SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) have experienced an enormous increase in interest and activity recently, mainly, due to the unusual volatility of markets caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. More and more venture funds, private equity (PE) firms, and high-profile private investors form SPACs to go public and merge with firms whose management teams don’t want to or can’t take their companies public via a traditional IPO.

Competitive advantage plays a key role in business success, but not all companies know how to gain a competitive advantage and differentiate themselves in the current extremely competitive and cutthroat market. To build an edge over the competition, leaders need to be cognizant of competitors’ behavior and industry structure to be able to build sustainable value for customers.

Robinhood shares opened trading at $38 but later took a dive by 11%, finally ending the session at $34.82. The stock-trading start-up finished its first day of trading down 8.4% below its initial public offering price with a market capitalization of about $29 billion, showing retail investors' leeriness and skepticism over Robinhood’s mission of democratizing finance and upending Wall Street.