With over 670 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, Walmart topped the ranking of the hundred largest companies globally, followed by Amazon. Walmart was also the largest company in the world based on its number of employees, with some 2.1 million all over the world. Largest corporations based on revenue - additional information The concept of revenue itself might slightly differ depending on country or even from one company to another. It usually refers to the income resulted from normal business activities, such as the sale of goods and services to customers. Walmart The American-based multinational corporation Walmart was founded in 1962 and currently operates over 10,600 stores worldwide, out of which 4,600 are in the United States alone. In 2024, Walmart was ranked the third most valuable retail brand in the world, with a brand value of about 60 billion U.S. dollars. Follow this link to get access to the top 500 companies from all industries list.

In 2024, the Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco posted the highest revenue of any company in the world before taxes, with an income of over 208 billion U.S. dollars. Apple, Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway, and Microsoft rounded out the top five spots in the ranking of most profitable companies. What is net income? Net income, or net profit, which differs slightly from pre-tax income, is the figure that gives the most complete overview of a company’s profitability: It is calculated as the revenue of a company less all operating expenses, debt payments, interest paid, income from subsidiary holdings, taxes, etc. Different industries have different net profit margins. The Apple doesn’t fall far In terms of market value, Microsoft was the largest company in the world in 2024, with Apple following in second. Since the beginning of the new millennium, Apple has reported ever rising amounts of worldwide revenue, with iPhone sales leading the charge.

With a market capitalization of 3.12 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 2024, Microsoft was the world’s largest company that year. Rounding out the top five were some of the world’s most recognizable brands: Apple, NVIDIA, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Amazon. Saudi Aramco led the ranking of the world's most profitable companies in 2023, with a pre-tax income of nearly 250 billion U.S. dollars. How are market value and market capitalization determined? Market value and market capitalization are two terms frequently used – and confused - when discussing the profitability and viability of companies. Strictly speaking, market capitalization (or market cap) is the worth of a company based on the total value of all their shares; an important metric when determining the comparative value of companies for trading opportunities. Accordingly, many stock exchanges such as the New York or London Stock Exchange release market capitalization data on their listed companies. On the other hand, market value technically refers to what a company is worth in a much broader context. It is determined by multiple factors, including profitability, corporate debt, and the market environment as a whole. In this sense it aims to estimate the overall value of a company, with share price only being one element. Market value is therefore useful for determining whether a company’s shares are over- or undervalued, and in arriving at a price if the company is to be sold. Such valuations are generally made on a case-by-case basis though, and not regularly reported. For this reason, market capitalization is often reported as market value. What are the top companies in the world? The answer to this question depends on the metric used. Although the largest company by market capitalization, Microsoft's global revenue did not manage to crack the top 20 companies. Rather, American multinational retailer Walmart was ranked as the largest company in the world by revenue. Walmart also had the highest number of employees in the world.

In 2024, Microsoft generated approximately, 2780 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, making it the largest IT services company in the world in terms of revenue. Other major firms in the IT services market include Alphabet Inc., with revenues of over 1780 billion U.S. dollars, followed by AWS and Meta. IT services market A key sub-sector of the larger information technology industry is the IT services market. This sub-sector brings in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, with forecasts suggesting that this number will reach 1.42 trillion U.S. dollars in spending in 2023 after eclipsing the one trillion dollar mark in 2019. Digitalization, along with constant technological advancement, means that businesses in nearly every industry rely on IT services which results in continuous market spending. What are IT services products? The term IT services refers to a large amount of services and solutions used by businesses to assess, manage, and deliver information. These services include cloud computing, database management, as well as hardware deployment and support. Notably, these IT solutions assist in a vast array of business functions and thereby empower companies to stay agile and adaptive in a quickly changing environment.

Walmart had about 2.1 million employees in 2023, the highest of all companies worldwide that year. Walmart also led ranking of companies by revenue in 2022, with a total revenue of about 640 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon followed in second with 1.5 million employees worldwide, with Hoi Han Precision Industry in third.

Walmart

In the United States, where Walmart has its highest number of employees, there are 4,700 stores as of 2023, and some 3,570 of these stores are Walmart’s Supercenters . The company has expanded all around the world, especially having a high number of stores in Central America.

Amazon

The number of people employed by Amazon has increased rapidly in recent years. In 2019, less than 800,000 people worked at the technology company, whereas in it employed more than 1.5 million in 2023. As with the number of employees, its net revenue has also increased over the last years.

Shell had the highest annual revenue of all companies based in the United Kingdom in 2024, at approximately 289.7 billion U.S. dollars. BP had the second-highest annual revenue at 202.8 billion dollars, followed by HSBC Holdings, which had a revenue of 144.9 billion U.S. dollars. In terms of global employee numbers, however, Compass Group had the highest number among UK-based businesses, at approximately half a million in 2024, followed by Tesco at 345,000 and HSBC at almost 214,000. Big Oil, a banking giant, and Britain's top supermarket chain The two companies listed as having the most revenue in the UK this year also two of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world, alongside Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies. After a huge surge in energy prices in 2022, these companies saw their profits recede slightly in 2023, but clearly remain in strong financial positions. HSBC Holdings, meanwhile, was the largest bank in Europe in terms of market capitalization, and was estimated to have the third-highest number of UK-based customers in 2023. The company with the fourth-highest revenue in this year, Tesco has by some distance the largest grocery-market share in Great Britain, a position it has maintained despite growing competition from discounters like Lidl and Aldi. UK economy health check In the first two quarters of 2024, the UK economy grew by 0.7 percent, and 0.6 percent, emerging from a brief recession at the end of 2023. Consumer Price inflation, which reached a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, fell below two percent in September 2024, for the first time since April 2021, potentially leading to further interest rate cuts. Despite these generally positive signs, business confidence in the UK in September 2024 was lower than at any point since early 2021. Company insolvencies in England and Wales have also reached levels not seen since the global financial crisis in the late 2000s. This generally mixed picture will be influenced by the next government budget set for the end of October 2024, which may see certain taxes increase due to the UK's tricky fiscal situation.

In 2021, Apple was the largest publicly traded company in California based on revenue. That year, they had a revenue of 365.82 billion U.S. dollars. Alphabet, Chevron, Wells Fargo and Meta rounded out the top five publicly traded companies in California.

Apple

Apple is a multinational company headquartered in California. It was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Known for their popular iPhones and Mac computers, they have further expanded into other products such as iPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Air Pods, and Apple Pay. It is now one of the world’s largest and most valuable companies. Their worldwide revenue has increased dramatically since 2004, with the largest share of their sales since 2012 coming from the Americas. Despite being one of the most successful technology companies, it has faced a lot of criticism from consumers. Some of the criticisms include tax avoidance, sweatshop use, and environmental destruction.

Fortune 500 Companies

In 2021, New York and California had the highest number of Fortune 500 companies, followed by Texas, Illinois, and Ohio. For New York, this can be attributed to its being the financial and cultural hub of the country. Fortune 500 Companies are ranked by Fortune magazine, which ranks the the top 500 companies in the United States based on revenue. Companies on this list are both publicly and privately held. The companies that get listed have changed over the years, for a variety of reasons such as company acquisitions, bankruptcies, and changes in the economy.

In 2024, the German car manufacturer Volkswagen had a revenue of 348.41 billion U.S. dollars, the largest of any European company. Shell had the second largest revenue in this year at 323.18. billion U.S. dollars, followed by the French petroleum company Total Energy at 218.9 billion dollars with Glencore having the fourth-highest revenue in Europe at 217.83 billion U.S. dollars. VW employs over 684 thousand Volkswagen also was one of the main employers in Europe in 2024 with over 680 thousand working for the German car giant. Volkswagen was only behind the Irish consulting services Accenture, that employed more than 700 thousand people in the same year. In third place, Compass Group from the United Kingdom employed more 550 thousand people. Walmart tops global rankings When the scope is broadened to look at companies worldwide, Walmart had both the largest revenue of any company, (648 billion U.S. dollars) and the highest number of employees at over 2.1 million people. The e-commerce giant Amazon had the second-highest revenue in 2024, at over 500 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2023, online retail platform Amazon ranked first among publicly traded internet companies, with global annual revenue amounting to 574 billion U.S. dollars. Online company Alphabet generated roughly 282.83 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues, the majority of it through advertising. Amazon is also the highest ranked U.S. online company based on market capitalization.

In 2023, the leading media company worldwide based on revenue was Alphabet Inc., with revenue of 284 billion euros. In second place was Meta Platforms Inc, followed by Comcast Corporation, Bytedance, and Walt Disney.

Media market - additional information

The global entertainment and media market has a high value, considering it is made up of television, radio, internet, newspaper and in general technology-based companies. In 2023, this industry had an accumulated value of approximately 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars. Projections for this market are optimistic as this industry is expected to increase its value over the next years, potentially reaching a revenue of 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars by 2027.

The first-ranking Alphabet had a revenue of over 284 billion euros in 2023. The U.S. is the most important regional market for Alphabet, generating over 40 percent of its revenue. Alphabet was followed by a telecommunications giant Comcast and by a fellow tech company, Meta. The U.S. is also a major market for Comcast, as they hold more than 20 percent of the pay TV market share in the U.S..

The majority of the leading media companies in the world are U.S.-based companies. Indeed, media has a major role in the daily life of Americans. On average, a consumer in the U.S. spent an more than 790 minutes per day consuming major media.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tencent was was the highest-grossing gaming company worldwide. The Shenzhen-headquartered online company generated approximately 30 billion U.S. dollars in gaming revenues during the measured period. Japanese competitor Sony was ranked second with 18.3 billion U.S. dollars in quarterly gaming revenues. Sony is one of the biggest gaming publishers worldwide and also owns the PlayStation gaming platform.

The two Volvo companies, Volvo AB and Volvo Car AB seized the two top spots on the list of the top twenty companies with the highest turnover in Sweden as of August 2023. Ranked first was Volvo AB, with a turnover reaching more than 370 billion Swedish kronor. Volvo AB (also known as Volvo Group) is a world leading manufacturer of mainly trucks, but also buses, and marine and industrial engines.

 Volvo Cars AB ranked as second

Volvo Cars AB was ranked second in the top twenty companies ranking in Sweden, with a turnover of more than 280 billion Swedish kronor. Volvo Cars used to be part of Volvo AB until 1999 and is today owned by the automotive company Geely.

Volvo Group on a global scale

Volvo Group’s net sales on a global scale indreased until 2019, but fell in 2020 after the outbreak of COVID-19. In 2022, Volvo Group's global revenue was 473 billion Swedish kronor.

When looking at the leading food and drink services chains by sales in 2023, as ranked by Forbes in its "Global 2000" list of the largest companies worldwide, Compass Group came out on top. The contract food service company had sales of over 40 billion U.S. dollars that year. Meanwhile, the Starbucks Corporation ranked second with total sales amounting to 36.5 billion U.S. dollars What are the leading food service brands worldwide? Starbucks also ranked as the second most valuable quick service restaurant worldwide in 2023. Taking the top spot in that ranking was McDonald’s, with a brand value of over 191 billion U.S. dollars. McDonald’s Golden Arches can be seen all over the world, and, in 2023, the company's global revenue reached 25.49 billion U.S. dollars. How many Starbucks establishments are there worldwide? There were around 38 thousand Starbucks stores worldwide in 2023, a figure that has seen almost consistent growth over the past 20 years. The largest share of Starbucks’ establishments were located in its home nation of the United States. Despite this, the coffee chain has a tremendous international presence, with the company having accounted for more Starbucks stores abroad than in its home country in 2023.

The energy company Energetický a průmyslový holding had the highest revenue of all Czech companies in 2023, with a revenue value of over 581 billion Czech koruna. However, this was a huge decrease compared to the previous year when its revenue was 911.9 billion Czech koruna. The car manufacturer Škoda Auto finished second with nearly 580 billion koruna, at the same time, it has recorded its highest revenue ever. ČEZ, an energy company, with over 340 billion koruna was placed third.

In 2022, Google was the largest media company worldwide, with advertising revenues of 224.5 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon's ad revenue amounted to roughly 38 billion dollars, placing the company in the third spot in the global ranking. Bytedance - the owner of TikTok - had estimated earnings of over 31.6 billion dollars with advertising.

In 2023, with a revenue of approximately 32.4 billion U.S. dollars, Medtronic was the leading medical technology company in the world. The largest segment within the company was for cardiovascular care, followed by the neuroscience segment. The United States was by far the most important geographical region for Medtronic. Medtronic in numbers Medtronic was founded in Minnesota in 1949, and since then, the company has had its operational headquarters located there. However, in 2015 the legal base of Medtronic was moved to Ireland for tax reasons. Over the past 15 years, Medtronic has undergone significant increases in revenue, increasing almost year-on-year. As of 2020, almost 105 thousand people were employed worldwide. Johnson & Johnson In 2023, U.S. based medical device company Johnson & Johnson generated 30.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. The company had around 132 thousand employees in 2022. Johnson & Johnson’s largest segment within medical devices was surgical, which earned about 10 billion U.S. dollars. The orthopedics franchise was the segment’s second-largest field, generating roughly 8.9 billion U.S. dollars that year.

In 2024, Samsung Electronics was the largest company in South Korea based on revenue, generating over 198 billion U.S. dollars and ranking 31st on the Fortune Global 500 list. Following Samsung was Hyundai Motor, which reported a revenue of approximately 124.6 billion U.S. dollars. That year, a total of 15 South Korean companies were included in the Fortune Global 500 rankings.

Volkswagen had by far the highest annual revenue of all companies based in Germany in 2024, at approximately 348 billion U.S. dollars. BMW had the second highest annual revenue at 168 billion U.S. dollars, followed by Mercedes-Benz which had a revenue of 165 billion U.S. dollars.

In the most recently reported fiscal year, Google's revenue amounted to 348.16 billion U.S. dollars. Google's revenue is largely made up by advertising revenue, which amounted to 264.59 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. As of October 2024, parent company Alphabet ranked first among worldwide internet companies, with a market capitalization of 2,02 billion U.S. dollars. Google’s revenue Founded in 1998, Google is a multinational internet service corporation headquartered in California, United States. Initially conceptualized as a web search engine based on a PageRank algorithm, Google now offers a multitude of desktop, mobile and online products. Google Search remains the company’s core web-based product along with advertising services, communication and publishing tools, development and statistical tools as well as map-related products. Google is also the producer of the mobile operating system Android, Chrome OS, Google TV as well as desktop and mobile applications such as the internet browser Google Chrome or mobile web applications based on pre-existing Google products. Recently, Google has also been developing selected pieces of hardware which ranges from the Nexus series of mobile devices to smart home devices and driverless cars. Due to its immense scale, Google also offers a crisis response service covering disasters, turmoil and emergencies, as well as an open source missing person finder in times of disaster. Despite the vast scope of Google products, the company still collects the majority of its revenue through online advertising on Google Site and Google network websites. Other revenues are generated via product licensing and most recently, digital content and mobile apps via the Google Play Store, a distribution platform for digital content. As of September 2020, some of the highest-grossing Android apps worldwide included mobile games such as Candy Crush Saga, Pokemon Go, and Coin Master.

In 2024, Cargill was the largest private company in the United States, by revenue. That year, they had a revenue of 160 billion U.S. dollars. In comparison, gas station company QuikTrip made around 19.6 billion U.S. dollars. Cargill Cargill is a multinational corporation that focuses on agricultural services, crop and livestock, raw materials, and health and pharmaceuticals. Most of their business focuses on purchasing and distributing grain, palm oil, energy trade, and steel. It is a family-owned business headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and founded in 1865. It operates in over 60 countries, has about 150,000 employees, and is responsible for about a quarter of all United States grain exports. Additionally, it also supplies about a quarter of the domestic meat market. Largest U.S. companies United Healthcare Group was the largest health insurance company in 2018, while SC Johnson was the largest private household and personal care product company. United Healthcare is also headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, while SC Johnson is headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin. United Healthcare is not only the largest health insurance company in the United States, but also worldwide. Furthermore, SC Johnson is one of the oldest family-owned companies in the country, and currently over owns over 20 brands.