Apple, Amazon, Walmart, and your local dentist’s office can all be corporations. A corporation is a legal entity that exists separately from its owners, and they range from trillion-dollar tech giants to one-person medical practices. The best way to understand what a corporation looks like is to see real examples across different types and sizes.
Large Public Corporations
The most recognizable corporations are publicly traded companies, meaning anyone can buy shares of their stock on exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. These are the names most people think of when they hear the word “corporation.”
As of early 2025, the largest public corporations by market capitalization (the total value of all their shares) include Apple at $2.97 trillion, Microsoft at $2.88 trillion, NVIDIA at $2.69 trillion, Amazon at $1.95 trillion, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, at $1.91 trillion. Meta Platforms (Facebook) and Berkshire Hathaway also rank among the top ten. These companies have millions of shareholders, employ hundreds of thousands of people, and operate across dozens of countries.
Multinational corporations span every industry. Toyota and Ford are corporations in the auto sector. Nestlé and Coca-Cola are corporations in food and beverages. Exxon Mobil is a corporation in energy. Each of these companies filed incorporation documents, issues stock, and operates as a legal entity separate from any individual owner.
Large Private Corporations
Not every corporation sells shares to the public. Private corporations are still legally incorporated, but their stock is held by a smaller group of owners, often a family, a set of founders, or private investors. You can’t buy shares of a private corporation on a stock exchange.
Some private corporations are enormous. Cargill, a food and agriculture company, brought in roughly $160 billion in revenue in 2024, making it the largest private company in the United States. Koch Industries, an industrial conglomerate, followed at $125 billion. Other well-known private corporations include Publix Super Markets ($57.1 billion in revenue), Mars (the candy and pet food maker, at $50 billion), and Fidelity Investments ($28.2 billion). These companies operate at a massive scale without ever listing on a stock exchange.
Small Business Corporations
Corporations aren’t just household names. Millions of small businesses choose to incorporate. A two-person accounting firm, a neighborhood restaurant, a freelance consultant, or a family-owned landscaping company can all be corporations. The reason they incorporate is to create a legal separation between the business and the owner’s personal assets. If the business gets sued or takes on debt, the owner’s house, car, and personal bank account are generally protected.
Small businesses typically choose between two tax structures when they incorporate:
- C corporation: The default type. The company pays corporate income tax on its profits, and then owners pay personal income tax again when they receive dividends. This “double taxation” sounds like a disadvantage, but C corps are the standard choice for businesses that plan to raise outside investment, go public, or eventually be sold.
- S corporation: A tax election available to smaller companies (with restrictions on the number and type of shareholders). Profits pass through to the owners’ personal tax returns, avoiding double taxation. Many small professional practices, consulting firms, and service businesses operate as S corps.
The SBA notes that corporations can be a good fit for medium- or higher-risk businesses and those that need to raise money. A solo software developer who wants to bring on investors would likely incorporate as a C corp. A plumber who wants liability protection and tax flexibility might choose an S corp.
Nonprofit Corporations
Corporations don’t have to be profit-driven. Nonprofit corporations are a distinct legal category. They incorporate under state law just like any business, but they reinvest revenue into their mission rather than distributing profits to owners or shareholders.
Many of the most recognized organizations in the country are nonprofit corporations. The American National Red Cross, Feeding America, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society are all incorporated as nonprofits. So are educational organizations like the College Board (which administers the SAT) and the Educational Testing Service (which runs the GRE). Cultural institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and the Metropolitan Museum of Art hold nonprofit corporate status as well.
Large foundations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation, are also nonprofit corporations. These entities can hold billions of dollars in assets and employ thousands of people while maintaining their nonprofit structure, as long as earnings go toward their charitable, educational, or scientific purposes rather than to private shareholders.
What Makes All of These “Corporations”
Whether it’s Apple with a $3 trillion valuation or a local bakery with three employees, every corporation shares the same core features. It is a legal entity formed by filing incorporation documents (usually called articles of incorporation) with a state government. It exists as its own “person” in the eyes of the law, meaning it can own property, enter contracts, sue, and be sued independently of its owners.
Owners of a corporation hold shares of stock, even if those shares are never traded publicly. The corporation has a board of directors that oversees major decisions and officers (like a CEO or president) who handle daily operations. Most importantly, shareholders enjoy limited liability: they can lose the money they invested in the company, but creditors generally cannot come after their personal assets.
This structure is what distinguishes a corporation from a sole proprietorship, where the business and the owner are legally the same person, or a partnership, where partners may be personally liable for business debts. The corporate form exists specifically to create that legal wall between the business and the people behind it, and it works the same way whether the corporation earns $50,000 a year or $500 billion.