Apple Tops 'World's Most Admired Company' List for 17th Consecutive Year

Apple's iron-clad grasp on the top spot of Fortune's "World's Most Admired Companies" shows no signs of weakening, with the tech giant finishing ahead of the 300+ pack for the 17th consecutive year.

Apple Logo Spotlight
Apple was placed above Microsoft in second place, followed by Amazon in third. All three companies have rounded out the top three for the fifth year in a row. Notably, Nvidia, whose GPU chips are powering servers for generative AI around the world, soared to its highest-ever ranking at number 10.

Fortune ranks companies through a collection of "key attributes of reputation," such as innovation, quality of management, social responsibility, use of corporate assets, financial soundness, quality of products and services, and global competitiveness. Apple topped the list in every category.

As it has in the past, Fortune collaborated with partner Korn Ferry on its survey of corporate reputations.

To select our 50 All-Stars, Korn Ferry asked 3,720 executives, directors, and securities analysts who had responded to the industry surveys to select the 10 companies they admired most. They chose from a list made up of the companies that ranked in the top 25% in last year’s surveys, plus those that finished in the top 20% of their industry. Anyone could vote for any company in any industry.

To see the full ranking of the World's Most Admired Companies, visit Fortune's website.

Tag: Fortune

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Feature

All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM. ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...

Top Rated Comments

WarmWinterHat Avatar
16 months ago

This is just embarrassing for a company of this size - we do not need more emojis ?
You need to tell that to Unicode. Apple doesn't decide to make new ones, they are just following Unicode guidelines so iPhone users don't end up with blank squares when another platform uses a new Emoji.

https://home.unicode.org/emoji/about-emoji/
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
16 months ago
This ranking can't be right. Apple is one of the least admired companies, per the comments from some on MacRumors. Those commenters surely know more than the "3,720 executives, directors, and securities analysts" who were surveyed.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
japanime Avatar
16 months ago
Forbes must regard us proles as fools. This has nothing to do with "innovation" or "social responsibility" or any of the other feelgood phrases they attach to this list.

All you need to do is look at the Top 10 and realize that the real, unspoken reason these companies are "most admired" is because they are making the billionaire class more and more money. ?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
seggy Avatar
16 months ago
The fact that Amazon is third speaks volumes about what kind of techbro definition of Admired it is here
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yellow8 Avatar
16 months ago
I think it's well-deserved, even though one might always find room for improvement, it's globally ok.
IMHO.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wanha Avatar
16 months ago

...most admired among "executives, directors, and securities analysts". They probably admire its stock performance first and foremost.
I would imagine they admire not just the results, but also the professionalism and structures that Apple has in place that allow them to do so.

A friend of mine who is in finance and is not a big Apple fan admires the efficient machine Apple has built over the past 20+ years.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)