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Zara, the flagship brand of the Spanish group Inditex, became the most valuable fashion brand in the world on Thursday by surpassing Nike in the annual Kantar BrandZ ranking, which assesses the value of the 100 most important brands on the planet.
The Galician chain reached a brand value of 44.088 million dollars (around 37.500 million euros), an 18% growth compared to the previous year, placing it in 66th position in the global ranking.
Nike, which had historically led the fashion category in this study, dropped by 17% to $41.188 billion and fell to 69th place, weighed down by a 32% decline in annual profits, margins pressured by aggressive promotions, tariffs, and slow inventory turnover.
Kantar analysts note that Zara "is a clear example" of the importance of building relevance through AI-driven personalized shopping experiences.
The company utilizes real-time data from over 6,000 stores worldwide, combining RFID technology, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence to personalize the shopping experience, automate inventory replenishment, and anticipate consumer behavior.
In 2024, Zara launched a virtual fitting room with generative artificial intelligence in its app in Spain, allowing users to create personalized avatars to visualize garments before purchasing them.
The Inditex group closed the fiscal year 2025 with net sales of 38.632 million euros, an increase of 7.5%, and a net profit of 5.840 million euros (+9.2%), with Zara accounting for 73% of total sales.
The Kantar BrandZ 2026 report reflects a general shift in the market fueled by the acceleration of artificial intelligence: the combined value of the 100 most valuable brands reached a historic high of 13.1 trillion dollars, a 22% increase from 2025.
On the global stage, Google returned to number one for the first time since 2018, with a value of $1.484 trillion (+57%), ending four consecutive years of Apple at the top.
For the first time in history, four brands simultaneously surpass one trillion dollars: Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.
ChatGPT recorded the highest annual brand value increase in the ranking, rising by 285%, while Claude, the artificial intelligence from Anthropic, debuted in 27th place with a value of $96.577 billion.
As for Asian brands, there are already 23 in the ranking, with notable growth from the Agricultural Bank of China (+54%), Alibaba (+51%), Xiaomi (+48%), and Tencent (+45%), which returned to the global Top 10 for the first time since 2023.
Kantar concludes that artificial intelligence "identifies the signals to trust and quickly and securely relates what the consumer does to real business decisions," a principle that Zara has turned into a competitive advantage over its rivals.
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