Technology
The World’s 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2018
The World’s 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2018
According to Forbes, the world’s 100 most valuable brands are worth a staggering $2.15 trillion.
While that singular number is impressive, the publication’s 2018 rankings of global brands can be further broken down in other ways that are also quite intriguing. Let’s take a look at brands by individual brand value, as well as sorted by relevant industry.
Ranking the Most Valuable Brands in 2018
Today’s infographic comes to us from HowMuch.net and it showcases the 100 most valuable brands in the world, according to recent Forbes rankings.
Here are the brands with the most assessed value, along with their one-year change and industry.
Rank | Brand | Brand Value ($B) | 1-Year Change | Industry |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | Apple | $182.8 | +8% | Technology |
#2 | $132.1 | +30% | Technology | |
#3 | Microsoft | $104.9 | +21% | Technology |
#4 | $94.8 | +29% | Technology | |
#5 | Amazon | $70.9 | +31% | Technology |
#6 | Coca-Cola | $57.3 | +2% | Beverages |
#7 | Samsung | $47.6 | +25% | Technology |
#8 | Disney | $47.5 | +8% | Leisure |
#9 | Toyota | $44.7 | +9% | Automotive |
#10 | AT&T | $41.9 | +14% | Telecom |
Apple remains the world’s most valuable brand at $182.8 billion, but there are four other tech companies hot on the iPhone maker’s heels – and each of them is growing brand value at a rapid pace.
Google (+30%), Microsoft (+21%), Facebook (+29%), and Amazon (31%) are all gaining at double-digit clips. At this point, each has lapped Coca-Cola, the highest ranked non-tech brand in the Top 10 at $57.3 billion.
Brands by Industry
The aforementioned top five brands are all focused on technology, but it’s important to recognize that this is also a part of a much wider trend.
Over the last decade, tech brands have gained consumer prominence to make the industry dominant both in terms of quantity of brands (20%) and total brand value (41%) on the Forbes 100 Most Valuable Brand list.
Industry | # of Brands | Total Brand Value ($B) |
---|---|---|
Technology | 20 | $872.6 |
Financial Services | 13 | $160.2 |
Automotive | 12 | $222.9 |
Consumer Goods | 11 | $124.7 |
Retail | 9 | $119.0 |
Luxury | 6 | $91.7 |
Beverages | 4 | $103.2 |
Diversified | 4 | $66.3 |
Telecom | 3 | $82.3 |
Restaurants | 3 | $65.0 |
Apparel | 3 | $49.0 |
Alcohol | 3 | $42.5 |
Leisure | 2 | $56.1 |
Media | 2 | $26.3 |
Transportation | 2 | $21.6 |
Tobacco | 1 | $26.6 |
Business Services | 1 | $14.8 |
Aerospace | 1 | $8.1 |
Total | 100 | $2,152.9 |
Only a handful of brands in consumer-facing industries like media, apparel, alcohol, and restaurants make the rankings.
Meanwhile, sectors that traditionally rely on heavy amounts of advertising – like consumer packaged goods and retail – have just 20 brands on the list between them. The highest ranked brand in either of those categories is Walmart at #26th with a brand value of $24.9 billion, which is about 1/3 of the brand value of online competitor Amazon.
AI
Visualizing the Top U.S. States for AI Jobs
Nearly 800,000 AI jobs were posted in the U.S. throughout 2022. View this graphic to see a breakdown by state.

Visualizing the Top U.S. States for AI Jobs
Much ink has been spilled over fears that artificial intelligence (AI) will eliminate jobs in the economy. While some of those fears may be well-founded, red-hot interest in AI innovation is creating new jobs as well.
This graphic visualizes data from Lightcast, a labor market analytics firm, which shows how many AI-related jobs were posted in each state throughout 2022.
In total there were 795,624 AI jobs posted throughout the year, of which 469,925 (59%) were in the top 10. The full tally is included in the table below.
Rank | State | Number of job postings | % of total |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 142,154 | 17.9% |
2 | Texas | 66,624 | 8.4% |
3 | New York | 43,899 | 5.5% |
4 | Massachusetts | 34,603 | 4.3% |
5 | Virginia | 34,221 | 4.3% |
6 | Florida | 33,585 | 4.2% |
7 | Illinois | 31,569 | 4.0% |
8 | Washington | 31,284 | 3.9% |
9 | Georgia | 26,620 | 3.3% |
10 | Michigan | 25,366 | 3.2% |
11 | North Carolina | 23,854 | 3.0% |
12 | New Jersey | 23,447 | 2.9% |
13 | Colorado | 20,421 | 2.6% |
14 | Pennsylvania | 20,397 | 2.6% |
15 | Arizona | 19,514 | 2.5% |
16 | Ohio | 19,208 | 2.4% |
17 | Maryland | 16,769 | 2.1% |
18 | Minnesota | 11,808 | 1.5% |
19 | Tennessee | 11,173 | 1.4% |
20 | Missouri | 10,990 | 1.4% |
21 | Oregon | 10,811 | 1.4% |
22 | Washington, D.C. | 9,606 | 1.2% |
23 | Indiana | 9,247 | 1.2% |
24 | Connecticut | 8,960 | 1.1% |
25 | Wisconsin | 8,879 | 1.1% |
26 | Alabama | 7,866 | 1.0% |
27 | Kansas | 7,683 | 1.0% |
28 | Arkansas | 7,247 | 0.9% |
29 | Utah | 6,885 | 0.9% |
30 | Nevada | 6,813 | 0.9% |
31 | Idaho | 6,109 | 0.8% |
32 | Oklahoma | 5,719 | 0.7% |
33 | Iowa | 5,670 | 0.7% |
34 | South Carolina | 4,928 | 0.6% |
35 | Louisiana | 4,806 | 0.6% |
36 | Kentucky | 4,536 | 0.6% |
37 | Nebraska | 4,032 | 0.5% |
38 | Delaware | 3,503 | 0.4% |
39 | New Mexico | 3,357 | 0.4% |
40 | Rhode Island | 2,965 | 0.4% |
41 | New Hampshire | 2,719 | 0.3% |
42 | Hawaii | 2,550 | 0.3% |
43 | Mississippi | 2,548 | 0.3% |
44 | Maine | 2,227 | 0.3% |
45 | South Dakota | 2,195 | 0.3% |
46 | Vermont | 1,571 | 0.2% |
47 | North Dakota | 1,227 | 0.2% |
48 | Alaska | 970 | 0.1% |
49 | West Virginia | 887 | 0.1% |
50 | Montana | 833 | 0.1% |
51 | Wyoming | 769 | 0.1% |
The following chart adds some context to these numbers. It shows how the percentage of AI job postings in some of the top states has changed since 2010.
We can see that California quickly became the primary destination for AI jobs in the early 2010s, presumably as Silicon Valley companies began developing the technology.
California’s share has since declined, with a significant number of jobs seemingly moving to Texas. In fact, many tech companies are relocating to Texas to avoid California’s relatively higher taxes and cost of living.
The 10 Most In-Demand Specialized Skills
Lightcast also captured the top 10 specialized skills that were required for AI-related jobs. These are listed in the table below.
Skill | Frequency (number of postings) | Frequency (% of postings) |
---|---|---|
Python | 296,662 | 37% |
Computer Science | 260,333 | 33% |
SQL | 185,807 | 23% |
Data Analysis | 159,801 | 20% |
Data Science | 157,855 | 20% |
Amazon Web Services | 155,615 | 19% |
Agile Methodology | 152,965 | 19% |
Automation | 138,791 | 17% |
Java | 133,856 | 17% |
Software Engineering | 133,286 | 17% |
If you’re interested in a career that focuses on AI, becoming proficient in Python is likely to be a good first step.
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