Top 50 Software Companies in the USA (Public + Private) - Ranked by Value (2026)
If you look up “largest software companies in the USA,” you’ll often find mixed lists that quietly include companies that trade in the U.S. but are not U.S.-based (Shopify and Atlassian are the classic examples). In this article, the main ranking focuses on U.S.-based software companies, and it includes both public companies (market cap) and private companies (latest reported valuation).
Important note: Market caps change daily. Private valuations are “last reported” numbers from funding rounds / secondary transactions and can be stale.
How software grew so fast in the last 10 years
A big reason software companies dominate “largest companies” lists today is that software shifted from “a product you buy once” to recurring revenue systems:
SaaS subscriptions replaced one-time licenses
Cloud delivery reduced friction to adopt tools globally
Security, data, and compliance became massive categories as everything moved online
AI features accelerated “software spend” by adding new value (and new infrastructure demand)
A useful way to quantify the expansion: Gartner’s worldwide forecast shows software spending at ~$310B in 2015 versus ~$1.232T in 2025 (in current USD, “Software” category), which is roughly a 4× increase over the decade. (gartner.com)
Methodology (so the table makes sense)
Public companies: ranked by market cap using CompaniesMarketCap’s “largest software companies” dataset.
Private companies: ranked using latest widely reported valuation (funding round / secondary / reputable reporting).
“Value” column: market cap (public) or valuation (private), shown in USD.
Scope: U.S.-based companies in this main table.
Public market cap source: (CompaniesMarketCap)
Private valuation sources (reputable reporting / company announcements):
Top 50 U.S.-based software companies (public + private), ranked by value
| # | Company | Type | Ticker | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple | Public | AAPL | $4.021T |
| 2 | Alphabet | Public | GOOG | $3.806T |
| 3 | Microsoft | Public | MSFT | $3.515T |
| 4 | Oracle | Public | ORCL | $562.30B |
| 5 | OpenAI | Private | — | $500.00B |
| 6 | Palantir | Public | PLTR | $400.08B |
| 7 | IBM | Public | IBM | $272.47B |
| 8 | Salesforce | Public | CRM | $241.44B |
| 9 | xAI | Private | — | $230.00B |
| 10 | AppLovin | Public | APP | $209.14B |
| 11 | Anthropic | Private | — | $183.00B |
| 12 | Intuit | Public | INTU | $175.24B |
| 13 | ServiceNow | Public | NOW | $153.11B |
| 14 | Adobe | Public | ADBE | $141.38B |
| 15 | Databricks | Private | — | $134.00B |
| 16 | Palo Alto Networks | Public | PANW | $125.02B |
| 17 | CrowdStrike | Public | CRWD | $114.34B |
| 18 | ADP | Public | ADP | $102.43B |
| 19 | Synopsys | Public | SNPS | $91.91B |
| 20 | Stripe | Private | — | $91.50B |
| 21 | Cadence Design Systems | Public | CDNS | $84.58B |
| 22 | Snowflake | Public | SNOW | $74.15B |
| 23 | Cloudflare | Public | NET | $68.66B |
| 24 | Autodesk | Public | ADSK | $61.07B |
| 25 | Fortinet | Public | FTNT | $59.67B |
| 26 | Workday | Public | WDAY | $54.94B |
| 27 | Datadog | Public | DDOG | $46.90B |
| 28 | Strategy | Public | MSTR | $45.16B |
| 29 | FICO | Public | FICO | $39.44B |
| 30 | Veeva Systems | Public | VEEV | $36.08B |
| 31 | Keysight Technologies | Public | KEYS | $35.49B |
| 32 | Zscaler | Public | ZS | $35.17B |
| 33 | MongoDB | Public | MDB | $32.52B |
| 34 | Epic Games | Private | — | $31.50B |
| 35 | Anduril | Private | — | $30.50B |
| 36 | Scale AI | Private | — | $29.00B |
| 37 | Zoom | Public | ZM | $24.93B |
| 38 | Leidos | Public | LDOS | $23.53B |
| 39 | NetApp | Public | NTAP | $21.25B |
| 40 | Twilio | Public | TWLO | $21.22B |
| 41 | SS&C Technologies | Public | SSNC | $20.94B |
| 42 | PTC | Public | PTC | $20.31B |
| 43 | HubSpot | Public | HUBS | $20.14B |
| 44 | Toast | Public | TOST | $20.00B |
| 45 | Samsara | Public | IOT | $19.57B |
| 46 | Unity Software | Public | U | $18.93B |
| 47 | Tyler Technologies | Public | TYL | $18.85B |
| 48 | Trimble | Public | TRMB | $18.64B |
| 49 | Figma | Public | FIG | $18.63B |
| 50 | The Trade Desk | Public | TTD | $18.42B |
Quick correction (because this confuses a lot of “USA” lists)
Some “top software companies in the USA” lists actually mean “popular software companies traded in the U.S. market.” That’s how you’ll often see these included:
Shopify — headquartered in Ottawa, Canada
Atlassian — globally headquartered in Sydney, Australia (also has a U.S. HQ presence)
So yes: they can appear in U.S. stock screeners, but they’re not U.S.-based companies.
What this ranking tells you about 2026
Mega-cap “software platforms” dominate (Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple) because software is now deeply tied to ecosystems, cloud, and distribution.
Security is a top-tier category (Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Fortinet, Zscaler) because every company became an internet company.
Data + AI infrastructure is where private value concentrates (OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Scale AI) because the “software layer” now includes models, agents, and data pipelines—not just apps.
SaaS winners look like compounding machines (ServiceNow, Salesforce, Workday, Datadog, HubSpot): high retention + long customer lifetimes = big multiples.