Google took first place in the annual ranking of the 100 most valuable global brands published by marketing agency Kantar Millward Brown. This is the company's first top spot in the ranking since 2018.

Google's brand value grew 57% year-on-year to 1,5 trillion USD. Kantar estimates that this growth is driven by the release of new AI models, the integration of Gemini technology into the company's products and services—primarily its search engine—and investments in data center infrastructure.

Apple, which held the top spot for four consecutive years from 2022 to 2025, dropped to second place. Its brand value increased by 6% to 1,4 trillion USD.

Other notable results include Anthropic's debut on the list, immediately taking 27th place with an estimated value of 96,6 billion USD. OpenAI demonstrated the highest annual growth of all the companies in the list, at 285%. By comparison, the only brand in the history of the top 100 with a higher value was BlackBerry, whose brand grew by 390% in 2008.

The report also recorded steady growth among Asian brands: Alibaba increased by 51%, Xiaomi by 48%, and Tencent by 45%. Tencent returned to the top 10 for the first time since 2023.

The combined value of all 100 brands in the ranking increased by 22% year-on-year, reaching a record high of 13,1 trillion USD.

Kantar Millward Brown has been publishing the ranking for 21 years. It takes into account companies' financial performance based on S&P Capital IQ data, the share of intangible assets—including patents and trademarks—and brand strength, assessed using the Meaningful, Different, Salient (MDS) methodology. The latter reflects current consumer demand, the brand's ability to maintain premium pricing, and growth potential.