Apple ranks third on TIME’s World’s Best Companies list after last year’s absence

TIME’s “The World’s Best Companies 2026” list is out, with Apple returning at No. 3 after dropping off the ranking last year. Here are the details.

Apple returns to TIME’s World’s Best Companies list

Apple’s performance on TIME’s The World’s Best Companies list has been rather interesting.

After topping the list in 2024, the company was notably absent from last year’s list “due to a decline in revenue from 2022 to 2024, which many Wall Street analysts have postulated could be due to the company falling behind on AI,” said TIME.

At the time (no pun intended), the publication also noted:

“But tides may be turning as the behemoth figures out its footing in the new tech landscape; CEO Tim Cook said on a third quarter earnings call that the company is significantly growing investments in AI, embedding it across devices and platforms. In July, after the study period for this list, Apple reported a 10% year-over-year revenue growth—the biggest bump since 2021.”

This week, TIME published its 2026 list, which saw Apple return to third place with a 93.16 overall score, behind Cigna at 94.37 and Nvidia, which topped the list at 97.51.

TIME calculates the score based on three equally weighted factors: employee satisfaction, revenue growth over the previous three years, and sustainability transparency. The three scores are combined into an overall rating out of 100.

Apple also ranked third for employee satisfaction, behind Microsoft and IBM, which ranked first and second, respectively. In sustainability transparency, however, Apple fell to 24th after topping that category in 2024.

TIME also gave Apple a “Very High” rating for revenue growth, the highest of its four designations, ahead of “Outstanding,” “High,” and “Moderate.”

Here’s the top 10 of TIME’s 2026 World’s Best Companies ranking: