The combined value of the global top 100 in the BrandZ rankings was at a record $13.1tn, up 22% on the previous year.

In another first for the ranking, now in its 21^st year, four brands individually broke the trillion-dollar barrier, with Google ( 1.5tn), Microsoft ($1.1tn) and Amazon ($1tn) joining Apple ($1.4tn), which broke the threshold in 2024.

Google saw year-on-year growth of 57% to claim top spot for the first time since 2018, in large part due to the success of its AI platform Gemini.

Other AI brands also performed well, with Anthropic’s Claude AI platform debuting at number 27 with value of $96.6bn, while ChatGPT had the highest year-on-year brand value increase at 285%, second only to BlackBerry in 2008, which rose 390%, in the biggest annual brand value growth registered by BrandZ.

Chinese firms accounted for 23 of the top 100 most valuable brands, with Tencent breaking into the top 10 bands with a brand value of $251.6bn, up 45% on last year.

In China, the strongest performers in terms of brand value increase included Agricultural Bank of China ( 54%), Alibaba ( 51%), ICBC ( 49%), Xiaomi ( 48%) and Ping An ( 41%).

Martin Guerrieria, head of Kantar BrandZ, said: “AI is accelerating growth. And it has also made marketing harder. Marketers are digesting more signals than ever, decisions have to be made faster, and it’s less clear what actually matters.

“The brands outperforming the market are using AI to bring judgement back into the system: to identify which signals to trust, connect what people are doing to real business choices, and do so quickly and confidently. In a market this fragmented, sustained growth is coming from clarity.”

Guerrieria added: “What we’re seeing, particularly from Chinese brands like Tencent, Alibaba and TikTok, is speed and follow-through: they interpret consumer signals quickly and have the discipline to act on them decisively. Their growth hasn’t come from waiting for perfect information but from moving early on what they know will impact their brand.”