California boasts America's largest economy and would rank ahead of the UK, France, and India in terms of GDP if it were a sovereign country. Instrumental to the Golden State's financial prowess is its many globally renowned businesses, which include tech giants as well as entertainment, retail, automotive and energy juggernauts. Together these firms turn over trillions of dollars annually. We've rounded-up the most prosperous of them all, from the oldest to the most recently established.

Fueled by Gold Rush money, Wells Fargo was founded in 1852, just two years after California achieved statehood, and went on to run the biggest stagecoach operation in the world. Based in San Francisco, the financial institution bankrolled the state's burgeoning movie and aerospace industries during the early 20th century and expanded massively throughout the nation from the 1980s onward. Last year the organization reported $86.4 billion in revenue.

Chevron dates back to 1879 when the energy giant's precursor Pacific Coast Oil was established in San Francisco. In 1906 the firm merged with John D. Rockefeller's Iowa Standard to form Standard Oil California and the company was forced to go it allow following the break-up of the Standard Oil monopoly in 1911. The business started using the Chevron name during the 1930s. The company, which was instrumental in developing Saudi Arabia's oil fields, eventually acquired rival Texaco. Its revenues in 2018 were a whopping $158.9 billion.

Named after America's greatest inventor, Edison International traces its origins back to Holt and Knupp, a business that was founded in 1886 to provide street lighting for the city of Visalia. It was incorporated, along with many other regional companies, in 1909 as Southern California Edison Company and went on to expand globally, hence its current name. Last year the utility firm, which is now a leader in clean electric power, reported revenues of $12.7 billion.

PG&E started out in 1905 and developed into America's largest utility firm by the late 20th century. The business has hit hard times of late. Its faulty systems were blamed for the wildfires that swept through Northern California in 2017 and 2018, prompting PG&E to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, while in October the company was forced to shut off power to many regions. Despite this, it remains one of the state's top companies. In 2018 the firm's revenues amounted to $16.8 billion, according to Forbes.

This long-established real estate and investment firm was founded as Tucker, Lynch & Coldwell in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was later known as Coldwell Banker. The business was renamed CBRE Group in 2011 following the acquisition of UK property company Richard Ellis. Currently the world's largest commercial real estate company, the firm generated bumper revenues of $21.3 billion last year.

Much-loved across the globe, The Walt Disney Company was established in 1923 by brothers Walt and Ray O. Disney and is renowned for its animated movies, theme parks, merchandise, and a whole lot more besides. Since the 1980s, the company has created and acquired divisions aimed at more mature audiences and now owns everything from ABC to National Geographic. In 2018 the entertainment conglomerate's annual revenue hit $59.4 billion.

The oldest tech company in our round-up, HP started out in a San Mateo garage in 1939. Founded by Stanford University grads Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the company initially produced electronic test equipment. The world's number one PC manufacturer from 2007 to 2013, HP was spun off into two separate entities in 2015. Last year the PC and printer firm (HP Inc.) pulled in revenues of $58.5 billion, while the enterprise products and services business (HPE) grossed $30.9 billion.

Visa came into being in 1958 as the BankAmericard credit card program and has developed into one of the planet's most recognizable brands and most successful card payment organizations. The corporation seamlessly processes trillions of payments a year. Based in Foster City, it reported revenues of $20.6 billion in 2018.

Broadcom actually started out in 1961 as a semiconductor products division of HP. Over the years the San Jose-headquartered tech company, which was acquired by Avago Technologies in 2016, has introduced numerous game-changing innovations, including the first fiber-optic transmitter and optical mouse sensor. Last year its annual revenues hit $20.8 billion.

Like Broadcom, Applied Materials is one of the most successful tech hardware companies to have come out of the Golden State. The semiconductor chip maker was founded in 1967 and has gone from strength to strength. In 2018 the Santa Clara firm reported revenues of $17.3 billion and was named among Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies.

Yet another Californian semiconductor chip manufacturer that has changed the world, Intel was established in 1968 by computer pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore (the author of Moore's Law) and is now the world's second largest semiconductor chip maker after Samsung. Last year the company, which is based in Santa Clara alongside Applied Materials, grossed revenues of $70.8 billion. 

Gap was founded in 1969 by husband-and-wife team Donald and Doris Fisher. The company began with just one store in San Francisco selling Levi's jeans, records, and tapes. These days, Gap, which is still majority owned by the Fisher family, encompasses brands that include Banana Republic and Old Navy, and has thousands of stores worldwide. Its revenues in 2018 were $16.6 billion, although the Gap brand itself is now being eclipsed by its smaller siblings, with experts predicting Old Navy could soon be listed separately from the main company.

The company known today as Western Digital was founded in Southern California in 1970. The firm gained prominence producing calculator chips during the early 1970s and manufactured its first data storage product in the latter half of the decade. Western Digital became the world's largest hard drive maker in 2012. Last year the company reported annual revenues of $20.6 billion.

The most successful California company of all time, Apple was the first public US firm to attain a trillion-dollar valuation. It reported revenues of $265.6 billion in 2018, more than any other company in our round-up. Born in 1976 in a Los Altos garage that belonged to Steve Jobs' parents – or so the story goes according to the company's mythology – the tech titan has wowed millions across the planet with products such as the iMac, iPad, and iPhone.

Oracle was founded in 1977 by tech entrepreneurs Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates, and has gone on to become the world's third largest software company. Specializing in database and enterprise software, as well as cloud-engineered systems, the Santa Clara company, yet another tech behemoth based in Silicon Valley, hit revenues of $39.8 billion last year.

Now one of the biggest biotech companies globally, Amgen had very humble beginnings in 1980 in a shared office in Thousand Oaks. Its first CEO even worked out of a trailer to free up space for the firm's scientists. On the vanguard of cutting-edge medical research since the get-go, Amgen pulled in revenues of $23.7 billion last year.

ER doctor C David Molina established his eponymous company in 1980 with a view to providing quality comprehensive healthcare for patients on low incomes. Today, Molina Healthcare serves individuals across America who are eligible for federal government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. Its 2018 revenue figure was $18.9 billion.

IT supply chain company Synnex was formed in 1980 by Taiwanese-born entrepreneur Robert Huang. Over the years the tech firm has established itself as a leader in the field of hardware distribution, having made numerous acquisitions along the way. In 2018 Synnex generated revenues of $20.05 billion.

This popular discount department store chain came into being in 1982 and is now America's largest off-price retailer. Based in the city of Pacifica, Ross Stores, which operates under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, has grown from six to 1,480 outlets in 38 states as well as DC and Guam. Last year its annual revenue was just under $15 billion.

Mirroring other super-successful Californian tech firms, Cisco Systems was founded by a pair of Stanford University grads. Starting out in San Francisco in 1984, Cisco Systems was the most valuable company in the world at the height of the dot-com bubble, and remains one of the most important tech businesses globally with 2018 revenue coming in at $49.3 billion.

Adding to the slew of semiconductor chip makers in our round-up, Qualcomm was established in San Diego back in 1985 by seven former Linkabit employees. Nowadays the company has a strong global presence with offices in more than 30 countries from Brazil to China. Last year the tech firm posted revenues of $22.7 billion.

Founded in 1987 by Dr Michael L Riordan as Oligogen, Gilead Sciences has transformed the lives of people living with HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, having developed revolutionary antiviral drugs such as Truvada, Hepsera, and Sovaldi. The Foster City-based company also discovered the influenza medication Tamiflu. In 2018 its revenues amounted to $22.1 billion.

The world's leading infrastructure company, AECOM was formed in 1990 by a group who had previously bought out the engineering business of Ashland. The Los Angeles-based firm has been involved with a plethora of megaprojects around the globe including One World Trade Center in New York, the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, and London's Crossrail. Last year its revenues were $20.2 billion.

Nvidia started out in 1993 with capital of just $40,000 and focused primarily on producing hardware for the gaming markets. The Santa Clara-headquartered company has since diversified its business into professional visualization, data centers, auto, and artificial intelligence. In 2018 the firm reported record full-year revenue of over $11.7 billion.

Netflix was founded in Scotts Valley back in 1997 when most people were renting movies from Blockbuster and similar chains. The company pioneered DVD rental by mail before it moved into streaming, shaping the way we consume media, and has gone on to expand into TV and film production. The firm's revenue last year was $15.8 billion.

Established by a group of six entrepreneurs in 1998, PayPal was called Confinity in its early days. The online payments company, which is based in San Jose, merged with Elon Musk's X.com in 2000 and assumed the name PayPal in 2001, a year before it went public and was acquired by eBay. The firm was spun off from eBay in 2015. Last year it reported annual revenues of $15.5 billion.

Salesforce was set up in 1999 as a firm specializing in Software-as-a-Service. Its first office was a tiny one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. Now focused primarily on cloud computing, the trailblazing company has led the way with numerous innovations that include the first on-demand app service and customer relationship management platform. Its revenue in 2018 was $13.3 billion.

Elon Musk is synonymous with Tesla, but the automotive and energy company was actually founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who named the firm in honor of genius inventor Nikola Tesla. Musk came on board not long after, however. The Palo Alto company, which is famed for its electric cars and battery products, reported revenues of $21.5 billion last year.

Read more about Elon Musk's maverick journey to billionaire status

Mark Zuckerberg created the first version of the social media network in his residence halls at Harvard University and launched the site in 2004 from his dorm room. Having achieved global domination, the site, which calls Menlo Park its home, now counts 2.4 billion active users and generated revenues of $55.8 billion in 2018.

Read more about Facebook's 15-year timeline and the staggering numbers behind its success

The newest business in our round-up, Alphabet was created in 2015 following a restructuring of Google. The Mountain View-headquartered conglomerate is the parent company of the search engine as well as its subsidiaries, which include DeepMind, Waymo, and Calico. Last year the enterprise pulled in massive revenues of $136.8 billion.

Now take a look at the most famous companies in every state and DC