Fortune on 4 June 2024 released the 61st edition of list of top 500 companies. These Fortune 500 companies account for 12.5 trillion US dollar in revenues, 945 billion US dollar in profits, 17 trillion US dollar in market value and employ 26.8 million people worldwide.
Walmart as No.1
The list was topped by retail behemoth Walmart with revenue of 485.6 billion US dollar.
Other Giants
Walmart was followed by Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Berkshire Hathaway and Apple at the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th position respectively. The top five of 2015 list remains unchanged as compared to the 2014 list.
Apple: the most profitable company
Apple was the most profitable company with profit of 39.5 billion US dollars followed by Exxon Mobil (32.5 billion US dollars).
Facebook Jumps Up
Facebook saw the biggest jump in rankings from 341 to 242.
New Entries
New entrants to the list included emerging tech heavyweights Salesforce.com, Netflix and Expedia.
Microsoft, Google, IBM, Intel and Oracle are all placed in the top 20 in terms of profit; however, they are placed outside the top 20 in terms of revenue.
The revenue of the Fortune 500 companies in 2015 increased by 2.6 percent from 2014 but the total profits were down 12.6 per cent to 945 billion US dollar.