50 Smartest Companies 2014
- 1
Why
After outflanking and outlasting competitors, it is on top of the genome-sequencing business—just as that market is about to soar in importance.Company Details - 2
Why
The startup automaker is putting together the pieces for a truly mass-market electric car.Company Details - 3
Why
It may have finally found the missing piece it needs to move beyond relying solely on advertising.Company Details - 4
Why
Maximizing the advantages of its vertical integration as it extends its lead in the smartphone market.Company Details32 percent
Samsung's share of global smartphones sold - 5
Why
Its tools will be crucial in helping companies incorporate new data from the Internet of things.Company Details2,150
number of business apps in Salesforce's online marketplace - 6
Why
Its business services are making cloud file storage more pervasive.Company Details200 million
number of users - 7
Why
At the forefront of adding self-driving capabilities to cars.Company Details2020
when BMW expects to begin selling cars that are autonomous on highways - 8
Why
These VCs don’t wait for biotech startups to come to them. They create companies themselves.Company Details - 9
Why
Not just giving merchants a way to collect payments on phone; now you can e-mail someone money.Company Details$20 billion
estimated annual value of transactions processed by Square - 10
Why
Raising expectations for what e-commerce can deliver.Company Details12
the number of top online retailers whose sales would have to be combined to match Amazon's. - 11
Why
Building on its Twitter-like social media service in China with electronic payment technologies.Company Details$130 billion
Tencent's market capitalization - 12
Why
Meeting the need for online interactions that are ephemeral.Company Details$3 billion
size of buyout offer from Facebook, which Snapchat rejected - 13
Why
By making a cheaper LED lightbulb, the newcomer to the industry hopes to dominate the market for energy-efficient lighting alternatives.Company Details - 14
Why
Its online file storage service is becoming the basis for a wide range of applications that help people get work done.Company Details1,000
number of third-party mobile apps that work with Box - 15
Why
Fired up the world's largest solar thermal plant in California.Company Details377 megawatts
the plant's production when fully operational - 16
Why
Taking advantage of its retail heft as it rethinks payment and e-commerce technologies.Company Details1 billion
Walmart.com page views in first five days of holiday season - 17
Why
Its use of big data and sensors could help revive manufacturing.Company Details$1.5 billion
announced investment in the "industrial Internet" - 18
- 19
Why
Has helped many organizations crowdsource data analysis; now focusing on certain industries.Company Details144,000
number of registrants for Kaggle data-analysis competitions - 20
Why
Makes an artificial retina for people with certain kinds of blindness.Company Details74
number of people who have gotten the Argus II implant - 21
Why
Where would NASA be without it?Company Details14
launches scheduled for this year—one more than it had from 2006 through 2013 - 22
Why
Keeping crowdfunding pure, it won't let donors get equity in startups.Company Details$962 million
money pledged onsite for 55,000 projects - 23
Why
Chinese energy company is snapping up advanced solar technologies at fire-sale prices.Company Details$1.2 billion
onetime value of Miasole, a solar company that Hanergy bought for $30 million - 24
Why
Its advances are bringing down the cost of offshore power.Company Details13,100
number of its wind turbines installed worldwide - 25
Why
The company has managed the nearly impossible for a solar startup over the last few years: it is still in business.Company Details - 26
Why
Disrupting the taxi business.Company Details69
number of cities in which people can use Uber's app to summon rides - 27
Why
Its tools for managing information overload get ever more useful.Company Details$45
cost of an annual subscription to Evernote Premium - 28
Why
Chinese Web-search leader is expanding globally, heightening competition with Google.Company Details8 miles
distance from Baidu's new Silicon Valley research lab to Google headquarters - 29
Why
This site for sharing computer code is part productivity tool, part social network.Company Details10.7 million
number of repositories of shared software on the site - 30
Why
This Chinese startup could outmaneuver big companies in the coming smartphone boom in developing countries.Company Details - 31
Why
Its soon-to-be-released virtual-reality headset should help the technology live up to its potential.Company Details21
age of founder Palmer Luckey - 32
Why
Leading Chinese antivirus company, moving into Web search.Company Details$12 billion
Qihoo's market capitalization - 33
- 34
Why
Just finished a production line to make its low-cost battery for storing electricity off the grid.Company Details$100 million+
capital raised - 35
Why
Its Watson system could deliver more answers from big data.Company Details$1 billion
new investment IBM plans for Watson-related services - 36
Why
Making fitness tracking technology mainstream.Company Details28
countries where the Up fitness band is sold - 37
Why
Continues to shrink life-saving implantable medical devices.Company Details2 grams
weight of the world's smallest pacemaker - 38
Why
A rising force in video games with its open-source console and online game distribution.Company Details65 million
number of people using Valve's game-distribution network - 39
Why
Will run the U.K.'s project to make DNA sequencing part of the country's health-care system.Company Details100,000
number of genomes the company hopes to sequence in five years - 40
Why
It's not clear whether it has invented quantum computers. But its machines solve certain problems remarkably well.Company Details30 minutes
time it took in one study for a conventional computer to solve a problem that D-Wave's machines handled in less than half a second. - 41
Why
If it can convert natural gas to transportation fuels and commodity chemicals, it could reduce our dependence on oil.Company Details - 42
Why
Developing a novel non-GMO way to breed crops with improved yields.Company Details$65 million
investment raised in recent round - 43
Why
Began as a project to spread cheap tablets to students in India; now selling devices everywhere.Company Details$38
price of its cheapest tablet - 44
Why
Making tiny computers for the Internet of things.Company Details$12 billion
Freescale’s value in a proposed acquisition by a Dutch semiconductor maker - 45
- 46
Why
Korean electronics giant's recent innovations include a smartphone with flexible, curved screen.Company Details30 percent
growth in LG's mobile phone business in 2013 - 47
Why
Its anticipatory software listens to your conversations so it can suggest relevant information.Company Details8
number of people who can participate in a conversation through the company's MindMeld app - 48
Why
Influential service acts as a matchmaker for early-stage investors and startups.Company Details$1 billion
amount startups have raised through the site - 49
Why
Tests crops designed to use less fertilizer and water or tolerate more salt.Company Details50 percent
amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed by Arcadia's rice, compared with conventional strains. - 50
Why
This startup invented its own digital currency for exchanging money across borders.Company Details