{"id":205178,"date":"2026-02-22T22:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/in-1985-the-worlds-most-valuable-company-had-400000-employees-by-2026-it-will-have-40000-employees\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T22:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:58:24","slug":"in-1985-the-worlds-most-valuable-company-had-400000-employees-by-2026-it-will-have-40000-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/in-1985-the-worlds-most-valuable-company-had-400000-employees-by-2026-it-will-have-40000-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"In 1985, the World&#8217;s Most Valuable Company Had 400,000 Employees; By 2026, It Will Have 40,000 Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p>36,000 employees is the approximate headcount of NVIDIA, the most valuable company in the world today. This number seems sizable, but it takes on a new perspective when we compare it to IBM, which boasted an astounding <a rel=\"noopener, noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2010-03-ibm-hundreds-jobs-sliver-400k.html#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\">400,000 employees<\/a> back in 1985.<\/p>\n<h2>The Workforce of Giants<\/h2>\n<p>At its peak in 1985, IBM employed around <strong>405,000 individuals<\/strong>, a figure surpassing the populations of medium-sized cities like Alicante, Bilbao, or C\u00f3rdoba. Today, while tech giants still maintain considerable staff, none come close to the organizational scale of IBM, except for Amazon, whose extensive global retail operations necessitate a large workforce. Here\u2019s a quick rundown of the current employee counts at major tech firms:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Alphabet (Google)<\/strong>: 190,000<\/li>\n<li><strong>Microsoft<\/strong>: 228,000<\/li>\n<li><strong>Apple<\/strong>: 166,000<\/li>\n<li><strong>Meta (Facebook)<\/strong>: 78,000<\/li>\n<li><strong>NVIDIA<\/strong>: 36,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NVIDIA, with its relatively small number of employees, represents the pinnacle of market value today, with a market capitalization soaring to <a rel=\"noopener, noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/nvidia-becomes-first-company-clinch-4-trillion-market-value-2025-07-09\/\" target=\"_blank\">$4 trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Revenue Insights<\/h2>\n<p>What did IBM generate with its extensive workforce? According to <a rel=\"noopener, noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/thechipletter.substack.com\/p\/how-big-was-ibm\" target=\"_blank\">The Chip Letter<\/a>, IBM&#8217;s revenue in 1985 was approximately $50 billion, which adjusts to around $150 billion today when accounting for inflation. Here\u2019s how this compares to the revenues of leading tech companies in 2025:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Alphabet<\/strong>: $402.8 billion<\/li>\n<li><strong>Microsoft<\/strong>: $281.7 billion<\/li>\n<li><strong>Apple<\/strong>: $416 billion<\/li>\n<li><strong>Meta<\/strong>: $200 billion<\/li>\n<li><strong>NVIDIA<\/strong>: $130 billion (projected for 2024)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While IBM was a colossal entity in its time, even adjusted for inflation, its earnings fall short compared to current tech titans. In contrast, NVIDIA is producing remarkable profitability, with each employee contributing approximately <strong>$3.61 million<\/strong> to revenue, compared to $370,000 for IBM\u2014almost a tenfold increase in efficiency.<\/p>\n<h2>Exploring Productivity Enhancements<\/h2>\n<p>How have companies achieved such elevated productivity levels? The secret lies in digitalization and the subsequent boost in efficiency. By 2013, it was reported that technology had led to a staggering <a rel=\"noopener, noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.management-issues.com\/news\/6801\/it-has-delivered-a-five-fold-increase-in-office-productivity\/\" target=\"_blank\">480% increase in productivity<\/a> since the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>Focusing specifically on the differences between IBM and NVIDIA, IBM&#8217;s operations revolved around the labor-intensive manufacturing of mainframe computers, a process where increased production directly correlated with a larger workforce. Conversely, NVIDIA operates as a <em>fabless<\/em> company, outsourcing GPU manufacturing to firms like TSMC. This strategy allows its 36,000 employees to dedicate their efforts solely to chip design and architecture, translating to faster scalability and more efficient operations.<\/p>\n<h2>A Legacy of Market Dominance<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the efficiencies and successes of modern tech companies, none can yet rival the sweeping market control IBM once held\u2014around <a rel=\"noopener, noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cs.cmu.edu\/~tcortina\/15292s17\/lectures\/The1960sAndIBMsMainframeComputers.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">70% market share in mainframes<\/a>. IBM was also a leader in minicomputers, microcomputers, and software, spanning databases and compilers.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, the stark contrast between IBM&#8217;s labor-intensive past and NVIDIA&#8217;s streamlined, profitable present illustrates a significant transformation in the tech landscape. As companies evolve, the focus shifts from sheer numbers to maximizing efficiency, productivity, and profitability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/category\/general\/\" rel=\"dofollow\">General News &#8211; 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>36,000 employees is the approximate headcount of NVIDIA, the most valuable company in the world today. This number seems sizable, but it takes on a new perspective when we compare it to IBM, which boasted an astounding 400,000 employees back in 1985. The Workforce of Giants At its peak in 1985, IBM employed around 405,000 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36399],"tags":[541,673,14132,166],"class_list":["post-205178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-company","tag-employees","tag-valuable","tag-worlds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205180,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205178\/revisions\/205180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}