The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years.[1] The list includes publicly held companies, along with privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available. The concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Smith, a Fortune editor, and the first list was published in 1955.[2] [3] The Fortune 500 is more commonly used than its subset Fortune 100 or superset Fortune 1000.[4]
The Fortune 500, created by Edgar P. Smith, was first published in 1955.[2] The original top ten companies were General Motors, Jersey Standard, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Esmark, Chrysler, Armour, Gulf Oil, Mobil, and DuPont.[5]
The original Fortune 500 was limited to companies whose revenues were derived from manufacturing, mining, and energy exploration.[6] At the same time, Fortune published companion "Fortune 50" lists of the 50 largest commercial banks (ranked by assets), utilities (ranked by assets), life insurance companies (ranked by assets), retailers (ranked by gross revenues) and transportation companies (ranked by revenues). Fortune magazine changed its methodology in 1994 to include service companies. With the change came 291 new entrants to the famous list including three in the Top 10.[7]
As of 2020, the Fortune 500 companies represent approximately two-thirds of the United States' gross domestic product with approximately $14.2 trillion in revenue, $1.2 trillion in profits, and $20.4 trillion in total market value. These revenue figures also account for approximately 18% of the gross world product. The companies collectively employ a total of 29.2 million people worldwide, or nearly 0.4% of the world's total population.[8]
The following is the list of top 20 companies.[9]
| + Fortune 500 list of 2024 | |||||
| Rank | Company | State | Industry | Revenue in USD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walmart | General Merchandisers | $648.1 billion | ||
| 2 | Amazon | Internet Services and Retailing | $574.8 billion | ||
| 3 | Apple | Computers, Office Equipment | $383.3 billion | ||
| 4 | UnitedHealth Group | Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care | $371.6 billion | ||
| 5 | Berkshire Hathaway | Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock) | $364.5 billion | ||
| 6 | CVS Health | Health Care: Pharmacy and Other Services | $357.8 billion | ||
| 7 | ExxonMobil | Petroleum Refining | $344.6 billion | ||
| 8 | Alphabet Inc. | Internet Services and Retailing | $307.4 billion | ||
| 9 | McKesson Corporation | Wholesalers: Health Care | $276.7 billion | ||
| 10 | Cencora | Wholesalers: Health Care | $262.2 billion | ||
| 11 | Costco | General Merchandisers | $242.3 billion | ||
| 12 | JPMorgan Chase | Commercial Banks | $239.4 billion | ||
| 13 | Microsoft | Computer Software | $211.9 billion | ||
| 14 | Cardinal Health | Wholesalers: Health Care | $205.0 billion | ||
| 15 | Chevron Corporation | Petroleum Refining | $200.9 billion | ||
| 16 | Cigna | Health Care: Pharmacy and Other Services | $195.3 billion | ||
| 17 | Ford Motor Company | Motor Vehicles & Parts | $176.2 billion | ||
| 18 | Bank of America | Commercial Banks | $171.9 billion | ||
| 19 | General Motors | Motor Vehicles & Parts | $171.8 billion | ||
| 20 | Elevance Health | Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care | $171.3 billion |
This is the list of the top 18 states with the most companies within the Fortune 500 as of 2021.[10]
| +Breakdown by state | ||
| Rank | State | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 53 | |
| 53 | ||
| 3 | 49 | |
| 4 | 28 | |
| 5 | 25 | |
| 6 | 24 | |
| 7 | 22 | |
| 8 | 20 | |
| 9 | 19 | |
| 10 | 18 | |
| 18 | ||
| 12 | 17 | |
| 13 | 16 | |
| 14 | 14 | |
| 15 | 12 | |
| 16 | 10 | |
| 10 | ||
| 10 |