"Mega cap" status is a very exclusive club.
In order to be considered a "mega cap" (as opposed to a "large cap"), a company needs to have a total market cap of $200 billion or more.
These three companies that I listed above are the 800 pound gorillas of the US equity markets. Ask people to name the largest publicly traded companies in the US, and there is a good chance that they will name all three. These companies are just HUGE.
Apple, believe it or not, is on the verge of joining this very exclusive club.
Apple closed on Friday at $218.95, which means that it currently sports a market cap of $198.54 billion, just shy of "mega cap" status.
When people think of "big" companies, they normally don't think of Apple. Apple has done a good job of presenting itself as a smaller company that is less "corporate".
However, there is nothing small about the $198.54 billion market cap that Apple currently sports.
Berkshire Hathaway ($194.25 billion) and Google ($179.41 billion) are both working hard at regaining "mega cap" status after losing it during the market downturn of 2008-09.
$198.5 billion in market cap is a lot of iPods and iPhones..