2020 was a challenging year for companies and businesses. But not for the world's 50 largest companies by market capitalization, which saw their value grow by US$4.5 trillion (millions of millions) last year.which saw their value grow by US$4.5 trillion over the past year. The value of this select group of companies, which includes everything from tech firms like Amazon to luxury goods companies like LVMH to retailers like Walmart, was equivalent to 28% of global GDP in 2020, more than double that of 2010, according to a Bloomberg analysis. They also made more money-with an average profit margin of 18.2% in 2020 versus 16.8% in 2010-and paid less tax-the median tax rate paid by these companies was at 17.4% last year, down from 24.6% ten years ago.