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

maxresdefault

Apple Shows Off a Key Reason to Upgrade to the iPhone 17

Saturday February 7, 2026 9:26 am PST by
Apple today shared an ad that shows how the upgraded Center Stage front camera on the latest iPhones improves the process of taking a group selfie. "Watch how the new front facing camera on iPhone 17 Pro takes group selfies that automatically expand and rotate as more people come into frame," says Apple. While the ad is focused on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the regular iPhone...
Finder Siri Feature

Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do. The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up. Upgraded Architecture The next-generation...
wwdc sans text feature

Apple Rumored to Announce New Product on February 19

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says These 7 U.S. States Plan to Offer iPhone Driver's Licenses

Monday February 9, 2026 6:24 am PST by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Apple Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and then use it to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. The feature is currently available in 13 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and it is expected to launch in at least seven more in the future. To set up the...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New MacBook Pros Could Now Arrive in March

Sunday February 8, 2026 6:02 am PST by
New MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips could arrive as soon as Monday, March 2, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In today's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that the release of new MacBook Pro models is tied to the release of macOS Tahoe 26.3. The launch is said to be slated for as early as the week of March 2. He added that the M4 Pro and M4 Max models on sale today...

Top Rated Comments

WarmWinterHat Avatar
27 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
27 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
27 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
27 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
27 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
27 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)