The Largest US Companies By Revenue During The Last 12 Presidential Administrations May Surprise You

Democrat Joe Biden officially took over as the 46th U.S. president in January. Biden is taking over a U.S. economy that is increasingly technology-centric.

In fact, the top five largest companies in the market today by market cap are all technology companies, including Apple, Inc. AAPL, the world’s most valuable public company.

While stock price and market cap are an important measure of a company’s value, it’s not necessarily a reflection of the size of the actual company.

For example, Tesla, Inc TSLA has a market cap of $779 billion compared to just a $44.7-billion market cap for Ford Motor Company F. Yet Ford’s actual business dwarfs Tesla’s. Ford reported $127 billion in revenue in 2020 compared to only $31.5 billion for Tesla.

Related Link: This 2009 Playbook Suggests Trouble Ahead For The S&P 500

Looking Beyond Market Cap: According to the Fortune 500 list, Apple may be the most valuable company in the market by market cap in the Biden era, but it’s not the largest when it comes to revenue.

The U.S. company now generating the most revenue isn’t even a tech stock. Here’s a look back at the largest U.S. companies by annual revenue when each of the last 12 U.S. presidents took office.

John F. Kennedy (D)

• Inauguration: 1961
• Largest American company: General Motors Company GM, $12.7 billion in revenue.

Lyndon Johnson (D)

• Inauguration: 1963
• Largest American company: General Motors, $14.6 billion in revenue.

Richard Nixon (R)

• Inauguration: 1969
• Largest American company: General Motors, $22.7 billion in revenue.

Gerald Ford (R)

• Inauguration: 1974
• Largest American company: General Motors, $35.7 billion in revenue.

Jimmy Carter (D)

• Inauguration: 1977
• Largest American company: Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM, $48.6 billion in revenue.

Ronald Reagan (R)

• Inauguration: 1981
• Largest American company: Exxon Mobil, $103.1 billion in revenue.

George H. W. Bush (R)

• Inauguration: 1989
• Largest American company: General Motors, $121 billion in revenue.

Bill Clinton (D)

• Inauguration: 1993
• Largest American company: General Motors, $132.7 billion in revenue.

George W. Bush (R)

• Inauguration: 2000
• Largest American company: General Motors, $189 billion in revenue.

Barack Obama (D)

• Inauguration: 2008
• Largest American company: Walmart Inc WMT, $377 billion in revenue.

Donald Trump (R)

• Inauguration: 2016
• Largest American company: Walmart, $482.1 billion in revenue.

Joe Biden (D)

• Inauguration: 2021
• Largest American company: Walmart, $523.9 billion in revenue.

Benzinga’s Take: The stock market is certainly a major part of the U.S. economy, but it’s not everything. For example, politicians and voters are always concerned with jobs numbers, and market cap can be deceiving when it comes to gauging the actual size of a company.

Apple may have a $2.2-trillion market cap, but it has only around 147,000 employees. Walmart, on the other hand, has more than 2.2 million employees.