Technology
The Extraordinary Size of Amazon in One Chart
The Extraordinary Size of Amazon in One Chart
It’s bigger than most brick and mortar retailers together
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
What has more value: all major publicly traded department stores in the United States, or Amazon?
Amazon takes the cake, and its no contest.
Add together the market caps of Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, JCPenney, Sears, and Macy’s, and they amount to a significant $297.8 billion:
Brick & Mortar Store | 2016 Value ($B) |
---|---|
Sears | $1.1 |
JCPenney | $2.6 |
Nordstrom | $8.3 |
Kohl's | $8.8 |
Macy's | $11.0 |
Best Buy | $13.2 |
Target | $40.6 |
Walmart | $212.4 |
Total | $297.8 |
However, it’s not enough to beat the Amazon machine.
The online retailer alone is worth $356 billion, making it one of the largest companies by market capitalization in the world.
The Death of Traditional Retail
Ten years ago, the future of brick and mortar retail sill looked bright. The aforementioned retailers were worth a collective $400 billion, and Amazon was only valued at $17.5 billion.
But disruption often comes without warning. Or if there were warning signs, they went unheeded by retailers.
Big box and department store sales plummeted, as consumers increasingly went online to do their shopping. This year, it is estimated that revenues are equal to just 62% of their totals in 2006:
Big Box and Department Store Sales ($ Billion)
Retailers without the right strategy saw their market caps plummet.
Sears went from being worth $27.8 billion to $1.1 billion (a 96% decrease), while JCPenney went from $18.1 billion to $2.6 billion (a 86% decrease).
Here’s the full damage over the last 10 years to brick and mortar stores:
Store | 2006 Value ($B) | 2016 Value ($B) | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
Sears | $27.8 | $1.1 | -96% |
JCPenney | $18.1 | $2.6 | -86% |
Nordstrom | $12.4 | $8.3 | -33% |
Kohl's | $24.2 | $8.8 | -64% |
Macy's | $24.2 | $11.0 | -55% |
Best Buy | $28.4 | $13.2 | -54% |
Target | $51.3 | $40.6 | -21% |
Walmart | $214.0 | $212.4 | -1% |
Total | $400.4 | $297.8 | -26% |
Amazon, on the other hand, did okay for itself.
The online retailer gained 1,934% in value over the same timeframe, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world, and a key piece of Jeff Bezos’ business empire.
Technology
Ranked: Largest Semiconductor Foundry Companies by Revenue
Most of the 10 largest semiconductor foundries in the world, are headquartered in just three Asian countries, accounting for 90% of the entire industry’s revenue.

Ranked: Largest Semiconductor Foundry Companies by Revenue
They’re in our phones, cars, planes, and even fridges.
Semiconductor chips have become critical for the modern way of life, and the biggest semiconductor foundry companies rake in billions of dollars from widespread demand.
This chart shows the largest semiconductor foundry companies by their percentage of global revenues in Q1 2023, using data sourced from Trendforce.
Semiconductor Foundry Companies by Revenue
At the top of the list and dwarfing every other company by revenue share is TSMC which earned 60% (or nearly $17 billion) of the entire industry’s revenue in Q1 2023.
Founded in 1987, TSMC is a pure-play foundry that has become Taiwan’s largest company and manufactures products for a host of clients including Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD.
Rank | Company | Country | Revenue (Q1 2023, USD) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | TSMC | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | $16,735M |
2 | Samsung | 🇰🇷 South Korea | $3,446M |
3 | GlobalFoundries | 🇺🇸 US | $1,841M |
4 | UMC | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | $1,784M |
5 | SMIC | 🇨🇳 China | $1,462M |
6 | HuaHong Group | 🇨🇳 China | $845M |
7 | Tower Semiconductor | 🇮🇱 Israel | $356M |
8 | PSMC | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | $332M |
9 | VIS | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | $269M |
10 | DB Hitek | 🇰🇷 South Korea | $234M |
Other | $556M | ||
Global Total | $27,860M |
Note: Revenue based on the following conversion rates: USD 1 = WON 1,276; USD 1 = NTD 30.4.
Well behind TSMC in foundry revenues is integrated device manufacturer Samsung, the biggest company in South Korea, which made $3.4 billion (12.4% of the industry’s revenue) from its semiconductor manufacturing business.
GlobalFoundries from the U.S., UMC from Taiwan and SMIC from China round out the top five, with each taking home around 6% of industry’s revenue share in Q1 2023. The former spun out from AMD’s manufacturing arm when the company went fabless in 2009.
Industry concentration is apparent in semiconductors. For example, the top 10 semiconductor foundry companies account for 98% of the entire industry’s revenue. Furthermore, 90% of the market is dominated by companies in just three Asian countries: Taiwan, South Korea, and China.
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