how big a company needs to be to qualify for blue chip status is open to debate a generally accepted benchmark is a market capitalization of 10 billion although market or sector leaders can be companies of all sizes 
for example the t rowe price blue chip growth fund doesn t have a specific guideline for what type of company qualifies outside of its focus on large cap and mid cap companies that are well established in their industries its top ten holdings have market capitalizations that range from over 670 billion tesla to over 2 4 trillion microsoft 12blue chips get their name from the game of poker where a blue chip has the highest value and is the most attractive to players the safety of blue chip stocksblue chips are considered safe investments due to their longstanding financial stability they may have survived difficult challenges and market cycles over the years however the bankruptcies of general motors and lehman brothers as well as a number of leading european banks during the global recession of 2008 are proof that even the best companies may struggle and even fail during periods of extreme stress 