Toyota and Sony: Two ways to become "national assets" of Japan
If Toyota is a model for a strong business thanks to stability and systemicity, then Sony is a story of regeneration - and both, in their own way, have become an inseparable part of Japan's economic strength.
Toyota is not simply the world's largest automaker in terms of output, but also the core of a giant industrial ecosystem. The group's global revenue reached about 317 billion USD in fiscal year 2025, continuing to be one of the largest revenue enterprises in the world.
Behind that figure is a network of thousands of satellite businesses operating under the streamlined production model pioneered by Toyota - a model that later became a management standard learned by the whole world. As Toyota grew, a series of component and spare parts suppliers in Japan and markets where Toyota invested also grew, creating a spreading effect that few businesses could do.
Meanwhile, Sony proves another model: National enterprises do not necessarily have to be immutable, but must know how to transform. Having struggled because the traditional consumer electronics segment (TVs, phones) was weakened by competition from Samsung and Chinese manufacturers, Sony has restructured to bet on entertainment and core technology.
Sony's game and network service segment achieved revenue of nearly 30 billion USD in fiscal year 2025, continuing to maintain a record milestone. Along with the image sensor segment - Sony's field holding the position of world's leading supplier for the smartphone industry - and the music and film segment, Sony has brought itself back to the group of the largest capitalized corporations in Japan.
The Sony story shows: a truly national enterprise not only generates revenue, but also creates soft power, which helps the world recognize and admire.
Microsoft, Amazon, Meta: Pillars of US technology power
Meanwhile, the economic strength of the United States in the past two decades has not only come from institutions or deep capital markets, but has also been strengthened by a small group of technology businesses with scale and influence far beyond national borders.
During the US President's visits, the presence of leaders of corporations such as Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, Google or Tesla has become a familiar image. This reflects how major powers see leading businesses as strategic assets of the nation. Not only creating huge economic value, these businesses also play a leading role in innovation, improving competitiveness and expanding the US's influence globally.
Microsoft continues to affirm its leading position in the cloud computing and artificial intelligence race. Azure's cloud computing revenue has for the first time exceeded the 100 billion USD/year mark, with a growth rate of 43% in the latest quarter (ending June 30; for the whole fiscal year 2026, the total revenue of Microsoft Cloud reached more than 214 billion USD, an increase of 27% compared to the previous year). This scale makes Azure comparable to the GDP of many mid-range economies, and is also the foundation infrastructure for a series of governments and businesses around the world to operate their systems.
Amazon has completely changed the way the world shops and operates digital infrastructure. The AWS cloud computing segment recorded the fastest growth rate in the last 15 quarters (28%), while the advertising segment has exceeded the revenue milestone of 70 billion USD in the last 12 months; Amazon's market capitalization also for the first time exceeded the threshold of 3,000 billion USD. From an e-commerce platform, Amazon has become an essential digital infrastructure that the entire US economy relies on.
Meanwhile, Meta, with its Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger ecosystems, currently connects about 3.56 billion active users per day on its platforms - a larger population scale than any other country in the world. Meta's revenue in the most recent quarter increased by more than 33% over the same period, mainly from digital advertising, and the group is betting hundreds of billions of USD on artificial intelligence infrastructure to maintain its leading position in the global creative and advertising economy.
The US is still always leading the world in the field of technology. But global technology giants such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Tesla... are not the names chosen. These are just names that have grown up from the US innovation ecosystem, operated in a circular cycle: from universities and research centers to create knowledge, attract talent; thereby forming businesses, receiving investment capital to develop products; bringing products to the large market, growing and listing on the stock exchange; after IPO, businesses continue to mobilize new capital to expand scale and invest in the next innovation cycles.
National business platform with Vietnamese nature
Through the common lessons learned from developed powers in the world such as Japan, the US, China, South Korea or Germany, Vietnam is gradually forming global brands in its own way with a long-term strategy. In developing large-scale national enterprises, Vietnam has issued Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW on private economic development, for the first time identifying the private economy as "the most important driving force of the national economy". The management mechanism has shifted from "State-led - implementing enterprises" to "Building State - market-led enterprises".
In addition, Vietnam is also building regional-level financial institutions, while supporting businesses to expand internationally. Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is implementing the "Go Global" program for the period 2026 - 2030, shifting the focus from only promoting exports to building truly global businesses, with the goal of training 10,000 businesses, supporting 1,000 businesses to build global strategies and 100 businesses to invest abroad.
With limited resources, Vietnam is focusing on areas and industries of strategic significance, capable of creating long-term competitive advantages such as AI, semiconductor, and manufacturing industry, while allocating limited resources for key objectives. The policy platform is Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation - identified as the "most important breakthrough" in the new era.
Vietnam is having promising core enterprises in that direction. Viettel, Vingroup, Vinamilk, Techcombank, Masterise Group, Masan Group and many other large enterprises are expanding their scale in fields from technology, finance - banking, real estate, industry to consumption...
If they continue to be supported and facilitated for development, these are not just successful businesses, but can completely become truly national businesses - playing a leading role, together with the Government realizing the aspiration to bring Vietnam out of the middle-income trap and become a developed, high-income country in the coming decades.
