Apple dominates Brand Finance’s 2025 report

The world's top 500 brands have collectively grown 10% to $9.5 trillion in 2025, outpacing the global economic growth which currently stands at 2.8%. Among the top five brands, Apple continues to dominate the list, achieving the top rank even this year as the most valuable brand with $574.5 billion brand value. This was revealed in the latest report, 'Global 500 Most Valued Brands 2025', released by Brand Finance which ranks the world's most valuable and strongest brands every year.

The high-tech sector has remained the key driver of brand value this year, with four of the top five most valuable brands being Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Among fast risers, NVIDIA's brand value rose by 98%, ensuring its entry into the top 10 global brands. Other fast-growing brands were AMD, TikTok, and DraftKings, exhibiting the growth shown by brands in the technology and emerging industries.

While technology dominates the listing, banking leads with 79 brands controlling 13% of total brand value, followed by retail with 45 brands at 11%. Even the media sector has shown strong 125% growth, evolving from traditional news sources to indispensable daily tools.

Top 5 in Global 500 – 2025
1. Apple: brand value of $574.5 billion, up 11% from 2024
2. Microsoft: brand value of $461.1 billion, up 35%
3. Google: brand value of $413.0 billion, up 24%
4. Amazon: brand value of $356.4 billion, up 15%
5. Walmart: brand value of $137.2 billion, up 42%

Brand Finance also released its ‘Global Top 25 IT Services Brands 2025’ listing where several Indian IT services companies feature this year. The top 25 brands in this list collectively reached a brand value of $163 billion. Technological innovation, specially in AI, has been a crucial factor in brand value growth for these players.

With a brand value of $41.5 billion, up 2% from 2024, Accenture tops the chart, overtaking IBM Consulting to become the strongest IT Services brand in 2025. Its global presence, diverse offerings, and investments in AI are seen as the reasons behind its dominance as the top ranker.

Retaining its spot as the world’s second most valuable IT services brand for the fourth consecutive year, TCS with a brand value of $21.3 billion (up 11% from 2024). Notably, TCS is the second IT services brand to surpass the major milestone of $20 billion in brand value, on the back of its investments in its brand and its growing strength in AI and new technologies.

Another Indian company, HCLTech, with brand value up 17% reaching $8.9 billion, has been named as the world’s fastest-growing IT Services brand in 2025. HCLTech growth is said to have been fuelled by its financial performance led by several mega deals across diverse industries and geographies in 2024 and its AI/GenAI business offerings that have created stickiness in the market.

Third Indian company, Infosys (brand value of $16.3 billion, up 15% from 2024 levels) is listed as the world’s third most valuable IT Services brand for the fourth consecutive year. A retail investors' favourite, the brand achieved the fastest CAGR in brand value (18%) over the last five years among IT Services brands.  Infosys has also been one of the key participants at the World Economic Forum conference at Davos. Under the leadership of CEO Salil Parekh, Infosys has increased its relevance in the AI-first world delivering strong performances year-on-year.