Computers changed the world forever, allowing us to enter an entirely new age of information. Never before has the average person been able to communicate instantly or consume media as we do today, and while the hardware is just as important, it’s the software that most people interact with on a daily basis.

And software has proven to be an industry that’s worth trillions when we look at the combined wealth of some of the biggest tech companies in the world right now.

1. Oracle Corp.

One of the oldest software companies in the world, Oracle made a name for itself early for providing software almost 40 years ago. Today, Oracle is heavily invested in cloud infrastructure as well as enterprise software, with a specific focus on database applications. On top of that, Oracle also provides both storage and server hardware, and is the company behind many of the programming tools that make use of Java. Oracle’s software powers billions of devices across the world and has a substantial impact on modern hardware and software.

2. Adobe

Adobe is the company behind the well-known and widely used graphic design software that has become associated with professional photography, graphic design, photo, and video editing, and much more. Currently worth $16 billion, Adobe offers a range of applications that are centred around illustration, editing, and graphic design, as well as document editing. Their primary software is Photoshop, which remains the first choice for most professionals across the globe.

3. Microsoft

Most people have heard of Microsoft, the company behind the world’s most popular computer operating system: Windows. Microsoft is one of the most valuable technology companies of all time, with a current value of $192 billion and a net income of $72 billion. Not only do they develop and maintain their highly successful operating system, but run a number of other software offerings, such as Microsoft Office, as well as Azure, which is a cloud computing service.

4. Alphabet

Next up is Alphabet, although most people know them by their subsidiary company, Google. Google is the company behind Gmail, the Google search engine – used for searching, researching, finding images, and even just checking out the latest Formula 1 betting options –  the Pixel range of smartphones, and a number of other offerings that have cemented the company as one of the largest on the planet. With an annual revenue of around $270 billion, there are few other corporations that pull in quite as much money.

5. Amazon

What was once an online e-book reseller, Amazon has become a global name in the e-commerce sphere and has an enormous revenue of $478 billion in 2021. It also has the largest employee number of any tech company due to the fact that it runs huge warehouses around the world. Along with its retail sector, the company also maintains large cloud infrastructure services that host a large portion of the websites found on the internet.