Top global stocks to watch in 2025

Investing in the stock market is an excellent way to increase your wealth and protect yourself from inflation. In the long run, stocks may produce higher returns than other investments like bonds or certificates of deposit (CDs). Many stocks also offer favorable dividend income.

The key to growing your wealth is to build a diversified portfolio of investments, including stocks, bonds, and others. This approach can help you grow your wealth and reduce the risks that arise during any economic or financial shocks. 

In this article, we’ll highlight the top US large-cap stocks, including blue-chips like Berkshire Hathaway and Magnificent Seven companies like Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia. We’ll dive into their financial performance, growth potential and how you can trade these stocks via CFDs on Bybit TradFi.

Key Takeaways:

• Market capitalization, calculated as share price multiplied by total shares, is a critical metric for assessing a company's true value.

• Blue-chip stocks, such as Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia, are large, stable companies with market caps often exceeding $1 trillion, favored for consistent returns.

• Bybit TradFi now offers stock trading on 78 US stocks via contract for differences (CFDs) with up to 5x leverage.

What is a stock’s market capitalization?

Market capitalization, or market cap, is the total dollar value of a company’s shares. The formula to calculate a company’s market cap is as follows:

Market capitalization = share price* total shares

This metric is much more relevant than the company’s share price because it shows how much a company is actually worth. Most of the leading S&P 500 companies have a market cap that exceeds $1 trillion. Many investors prefer companies with larger market caps because their financial performance is generally stable and they offer dividend income.

You can also use market capitalization to calculate other important formulas, such as the price-to-sales ratio or price-to-earnings ratio, to determine if a company is undervalued.

What are ‘blue-chip’ US stocks?

A blue-chip stock is a large, well-established company with stable financials. These publicly listed companies are generally industry leaders and have a market capitalization in the billions or even trillions. Some popular examples include Coca-Cola, Walmart, Microsoft and Visa.

Blue-chip stocks are very popular among large institutional investors, passive index fund managers, and retail investors. They are generally favored investments because of their consistent returns during the past few decades. Blue-chip stocks are also considered “large caps,” or stocks with a large market capitalization.

The Magnificent Seven refers to seven of the largest technology stocks that have driven the lion’s share of the S&P 500’s returns in the past few years. These companies include Nvidia, Meta, Tesla, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple. While these stocks generally have very high valuations, Goldman Sachs recently noted that they are currently at a seven-year low.

Top large-cap stocks to watch

Below are some of the top U.S. stocks by market capitalization. These companies are well-established industry leaders that could continue to deliver favorable returns in 2025.

1. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT): $3.41 trillion market cap

Microsoft is the world’s largest software company and one of the top-performing S&P 500 companies. The value of shares in the company has soared, increasing by over 800% in the past decade. Microsoft offers a variety of products that people use every day, including Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Consumer 365.

The increased demand for cloud and AI services has been a steady catalyst for the company’s growth. Microsoft witnessed strong demand for its cloud services and commercial products, while its LinkedIn revenue also grew 9% year-over-year in Q2 2025. Microsoft’s revenue increased by 13% YoY in Q1 2025, while its net income grew by 18% YoY.

Microsoft shares have returned over 80% in the past three years — well above the S&P 500’s return. Its strong financials this quarter have allowed it to outperform other growth stocks this year.



2. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), $3.12 trillion market cap

Apple is the world’s largest technology company by revenue. It is a leading designer and manufacturer of products like smartphones, computers, tablets and wearables.

Apple has recently launched the iPhone 16, as well as new Mac and tablet products. Its net revenue grew by 5% YoY last quarter, while its earnings per share (EPS) grew by 8% YoY. Apple also has ample room for future growth in other international markets, as its sales in the US alone currently account for over 40% of its revenue. Apple has been targeting new geographical areas, like emerging markets, to help it further diversify its future revenue. This tech giant has had a stellar performance in the past three years, but its stock price has pulled back by around 15% since the start of this year.

3. NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA), $3.31 trillion market cap

Nvidia Corporation is the standout performer in the S&P 500, becoming one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization. Driven by a global surge in demand for chips to fuel the artificial intelligence (AI) race, NVDA had a solid performance in 2024, returning over 170% and accounting for over 20% of the S&P 500’s gains. Nvidia is a giant in the semiconductor industry. It produces graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interfaces, and system on a chip (SoC) units. Major tech companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Meta Platforms are some of its top customers. The company is one of the clear beneficiaries of the generative AI industry, which Precedence Research projects will grow at a 44.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2034. With tech giants continuing to embrace AI, Nvidia is well-positioned to serve them. It recently outperformed the industry’s growth, as its revenue soared over 70% YoY last quarter. The company recently announced that it will begin operating AI supercomputers in the US for the first time.

Nvidia has trounced other S&P 500 constituents in the past three years. However, investors appear to be taking a “wait and see” approach with Nvidia in 2025 amid rising trade and political tensions.

4. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), $2.19 trillion market cap

Amazon is the largest e-commerce company in the world, with a market cap that is over six times larger than that of its next competitor. The company’s main offerings include its online retail store, Amazon Web Services (AWS), entertainment services and devices. Amazon’s net revenue grew by 9% YoY last quarter, driven by strong performance in North America and other international segments. The company’s AWS segment grew at a rapid rate of 17% YoY. Management announced many new catalysts that will support growth, including the launch of Alexa+, new international expansions, and a $4 billion investment to improve its rural networks. Amazon has grown its market cap from a mere $11 billion in 1998 to over $2 trillion today. Shares have pulled back slightly this year, but have still outperformed many top S&P 500 constituents in the past three years.

5. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), $2.03 trillion market cap

Alphabet Inc. is one of the world’s leading tech companies. As Google’s parent holding company, Alphabet is best known for its circa 90% search engine market share. It also offers other products and services such as YouTube, Google Pixel phones, Android and the Google Cloud.

Alphabet’s growth has been favorable across all segments in recent quarters. Its Q1 2025 revenue rose by 12% YoY, largely supported by strong growth in its Google Cloud segment (28% YoY). Alphabet’s Google Services revenue also grew by 10% YoY. Another exciting development for Alphabet is the introduction of Gemini 2.5, which could be a strong financial catalyst in upcoming quarters.

Shares have sold strongly since the beginning of 2025, which could make now an intriguing time to build a position in this stock.

6. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META), $1.61 trillion market cap

Meta Platforms is the world’s largest social media company. It attracts billions of users through its services like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The company has also been branching into augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which have contributed to its revenue increasingly in recent years.

Meta’s revenue rose by 16% YoY last quarter, while its net income also rose by 35% YoY. Meta has continued to attract more users and has been able to increase its revenue per user. The company’s number of daily active users rose by 6%, while its average revenue per ad rose by 10%. Meta plans to invest over $64 billion in 2025 to support additional growth in the future. Meta’s stock bottomed out at the end of 2022, largely due to concerns over the Metaverse, but has since bounced back robustly.

7. Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B (NYSE: BRK.B), $1.10 trillion market cap

Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified company that operates in the insurance, freight rail, and utilities industries. Warren Buffett recently announced his plans to exit the company, and Gregory Abel will replace him as the new CEO. Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings fell to $4.6 billion last quarter, significantly lower than its earnings of $12.7 billion in the same quarter of 2024. This decline was largely due to the poor performance of some stocks. Meanwhile, its operating income only declined by 14% YoY. Berkshire Hathaway has been a stable performer in the market, returning around 68% in the past three years. This company is a better bet if you are looking for a stable investment with less risk and a lower upside. While some investors may be concerned about the leadership transition taking place this year, Berkshire Hathaway still looks like a stable bet in the market.

8. Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO), $1.08 trillion market cap

Broadcom, a leading semiconductor and software solutions company, serves businesses operating in areas like cybersecurity, broadband, AI and data centers. The company has grown its revenue by over 34x through organic growth and acquisitions.

Broadcom’s revenue grew by 25% YoY last quarter, and its net income more than tripled. One of the main drivers of growth was its AI and infrastructure software revenue, which grew by 77% and 47%, respectively. The company’s management expects the demand for AI semiconductors to continue expanding because of increasing interest from multiple customers, including data storage centers.

Broadcom is one of the leading growth stocks in the U.S. market, trailing closely behind Nvidia. Shares have soared by 65.8% in the past year despite the volatility of the semiconductor industry.

9. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), $1.10 trillion market cap

Tesla is currently the world’s second-largest electric vehicle (EV) company. The company also operates an energy generation and storage unit, which is slowly becoming a strong revenue contributor.

Tesla’s revenue and earnings fell below Q1 2025 targets. The company’s total revenue fell by 9% YoY, while its automotive revenue fell by 20% YoY. Tesla has faced a plethora of challenges in recent years, including pricing power due to new entrants from domestic and foreign competitors. The IEA proposed that, in 2024, electric vehicles would only account for around 5% of total vehicle sales outside of the three major EV markets. So, despite the short-term setback, Tesla still has a lot of growth potential. The company plans to invest $11 billion in 2025 to support its financial growth.

Tesla’s stock price declined sharply at the end of 2024, but it has been making ample progress recently, returning over 40% in the past month. Tesla has returned 97.2% in the past year, making it the best-performing stock in this list.

10. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM), $845.97 billion market cap

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited is Taiwan’s largest semiconductor manufacturer. It primarily produces semiconductor products for companies in the automotive, industrial and telecommunications markets. Taiwan produces around 60% of the world’s semiconductor products, and Taiwan Semiconductor is the country’s main producer. Its financial performance during Q1 2025 was favorable, as its quarterly revenue grew by 35.3% YoY. However, this was also a 5.1% decline from the previous quarter. The company was affected by seasonal demand, trade war tensions and the earthquake that hit the country in January. The company’s future growth outlook looks very favorable. Taiwan Semiconductor also recently announced that it plans to invest $100 billion to expand its capacity in Arizona. Its management projects that revenue will continue to grow by 20% per annum through 2029.

The semiconductor industry has been through several volatile periods since 2020, but Taiwan Semiconductor has remained ahead of the pack.

Trade global stock CFDs on Bybit TradFi now

These leading stocks have delivered stellar returns and have performed consistently financially. However, investors should still be cautious of broader economic and political risks, which could result in short-term pullbacks in the share prices of these companies.

Bybit TradFi now offers stock trading through contract for differences (CFDs), enabling users to speculate on the price movements of 78 hottest US stocks without owning the underlying shares. Trade up to 5x leverage, with a trading fee of 0.04 USDT per share, and a minimum charge of 5 USDT per order. Head to Bybit TradFi to start trading now!



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