In 2021, New York had a total of 53 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state. California, Texas, Illinois, and Ohio rounded out the top five of states with the most Fortune 500 companies.

What is the Fortune 500?

The Fortune 500 is an annual list published by Fortune magazine that shows the largest corporations in the United States by total revenue within the fiscal year. The list includes both publicly and privately held companies. Being on the Fortune 500 list is one of the most prestigious marks a company can achieve.

Diversity in the Fortune 500

Increasing diversity has become a hot topic within the business world in recent years and it shows on the boards of Fortune 500 companies. Fortune 500 companies are appointing more diverse individuals to board of director positions and the share of women, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans in these positions have all more than doubled since 2009.

From 2000 to 2019, the United States had more Fortune 500 companies than any other country. In 2020, the U.S. was surpassed by China, where 124 companies were reported, compared to 121 U.S. companies. This is an impressive increase, as there were only 10 Fortune 500 companies in China in 2000. In 2023, the number of top world companies ranked by revenue grew by six in China, while in the U.S. there were 12 more companies than in 2022.

Analysis of ‘Fortune 1000 companies’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/ramjasmaurya/fortune-1000-companieslatest on 28 January 2022.

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The Fortune Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by Fortune magazine.

Until 1989, it listed only non-United States industrial corporations under the title "International 500" while the Fortune 500 contained and still contains exclusively United States corporations. In 1990, United States companies were added to compile a truly global list of top industrial corporations as ranked by sales. Since 1995, the list has had its current form, the listing also tops financial corporations and service providers by revenue.

Several inconsistencies exist in Fortune's ranking of cities with the most Fortune 500 headquarters. On June 3, 2011, the Atlanta Business Chronicle stated examples of Fortune including regional headquarters for some cities, excluding regional headquarters for other cities, and in some cases excluding headquarters that are physically located inside a city limit.

BUT THIS IS THE Extended version of The Fortune Global 500

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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.

View data of the S&P 500, an index of the stocks of 500 leading companies in the US economy, which provides a gauge of the U.S. equity market.

Despite comprising of a smaller share of the U.S. population than African Americans or Hispanics, the most represented non-white U.S. CEOs were of an Asian background. They made up 55 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies in 2024. By comparison, 11 percent of CEOs at the time were African American. The rise of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) Investments in ESG have risen dramatically over last few years. In November 2023 there were approximately 480 billion U.S. dollars in ESG ETF assets worldwide, compared to 16 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. ESG measures were put in place to encourage companies to act responsibly, with the leading reason for ESG investing stated to be brand and reputation according to managers and asset owners. Gender diversity With the general acceptance of ESG in larger companies, there has still been a significant employment gap of women working in senior positions. For example, the share of women working as a partner or principal at EY, one of the largest accounting firms in the world, was just only 28 percent in 2023.

As of April 10, 2025, tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon dominated the S&P 500 index and were among only eight companies with a market capitalization exceeding one trillion U.S. dollars in the U.S.

In 2020, the average lifespan of a company on Standard and Poor's 500 Index was just over 21 years, compared with 32 years in 1965. There is a clear long-term trend of declining corporate longevity with regards to companies on the S&P 500 Index, with this expected to fall even further throughout the 2020s.

Graph and download economic data for Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) from 2015-06-08 to 2025-06-06 about stock market, average, industry, and USA.

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.

The S&P 500, an index of 500 publicly traded companies in the United States, closed at 5,881.63 points on the last trading day of December 2024. What is the S&P 500? The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the evolution of 500 companies. In contrast to the Dow Jones Industrial Index, which measures the performance of thirty large U.S. companies, the S&P 500 shows the sentiments in the broader market. Publicly traded companies Companies on the S&P 500 are publicly traded, meaning that anyone can invest in them. A large share of adults in the United States invest in the stock market, though many of these are through a retirement account or mutual fund. While most people make a modest return, the most successful investors have made billions of U.S. dollars through investing.

This statistic presents the percentage of Fortune 500 companies with corporate blogs as of 2016, sorted by rank. During the survey period, it was found that 50 percent of the top 200 companies had a public corporate blog.

In 2022, based on revenue, China’s leading construction company was China State Construction Engineering with an annual turnover of more than 2.05 trillion yuan. Since 2012, the enterprise had increased its revenue by more than 350 percent. Similar to many corporations represented in the ranking, China State Construction Engineering is a publicly-traded company with close ties to the Chinese government.

State-owned enterprises

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a crucial role in many sectors in the Chinese economy and the construction sector is no exception. For the government, SOEs are a very practical tool because they can act as adjustment screws for the economy and serve as useful vehicles to carry out economic policy. Even though SOEs only account for a small share of the total number of companies in the construction industry, their sizes are significantly bigger.

China Railway Group

According to the Forbes ranking, China Railway Group was the second-largest construction company based on revenue. The enterprise is in many ways a good example of a quasi state-owned entity in the construction sector. It underwent structural reform and was able to increase its revenue in recent years. Part of the reform was that China Railway Group became a publicly-traded company on the stock exchange in Hong Kong and Shanghai. However, the company’s major shareholder is the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation.

The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index is an index of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the United States. In 2021, the index value closed at 4,766.18 points, which was the second highest value on record despite the economic effects of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2023, the index values closed at 4,769.83, the highest value ever recorded. What is the S&P 500? The S&P 500 was established in 1860 and expanded to its present form of 500 stocks in 1957. It tracks the price of stocks on the major stock exchanges in the United States, distilling their performance down to a single number that investors can use as a snapshot of the economy’s performance at a given moment. This snapshot can be explored further. For example, the index can be examined by industry sector, which gives a more detailed illustration of the economy. Other measures Being a stock market index, the S&P 500 only measures equities performance. In addition to other stock market indices, analysts will look to other indicators such as GDP growth, unemployment rates, and projected inflation. Similarly, since these indicators say something about the economic future, stock market investors will use these indicators to speculate on the stocks in the S&P 500.

The statistic presents the largest cash holders among non-financial S&P 500 companies in the United States as of September 30, 2013. Microsoft led the ranking with 79.93 billion U.S. dollars in cash equivalents.

China State Shipping Corporation (CSCC) was ranked as the top shipbuilding company on the 2022 Fortune China 500 list, with an income of 55.7 billion yuan in 2021. The Fortune China 500 for 2022 is a ranking based on each company's revenue for 2021.

China Baowu Steel Group Corp., Ltd., commonly known as Baowu, is the highest-earning copper producer based in China. According to the 2024 Fortune China 500 List, which based on companies' annual revenues, the state-owned firm generated 157 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, ranking twelfth among all Chinese companies.

This statistic presents the number of Fortune 500 CEOs accessing selected social networks from 2012 to 2016. During the most recent survey period, it was found that 181 of the F500 CEOs had a LinkedIn account, making the social network the most popular among CEOs.

Equity returns remained high in 2020, in spite of the uncertainty and volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic and related partial shutdowns. Initial public offerings (IPOs) ended the year with the highest rate of equity returns, which amounted to 76 percent returns for investors. However, the most compelling financial story in the second half of the year revolved around the huge increase in IPOs via special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). SPAC mergers refer to the practice of a SPAC, which is a publicly listed company with no operations, merging with a private company to take the latter public without following the normal IPO process. In 2021, however, IPOs and SPAC mergers experienced negative returns.

Why are NASDAQ and S&P 500 relevant benchmarks?

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 are two of the most important stock indices in the United States, if not the world. The Nasdaq Composite Index includes over 2,500 stocks listed on the Nasdaq stock market, which is the second largest stock exchange globally. The S&P 500 index tracks the stock value of 500 large companies, such as Facebook and Alphabet, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

What level of impact did the pandemic have on these indices?

Over the past decade, both the NASDAQ Composite index and the S&P 500 index have skyrocketed in value. However, both indices took a hit in February and March 2020 when the uncertainty caused by the pandemic led to investors selling off assets en masse. This dip was short-lived and both indices had fully recovered by the third quarter.

In 2023, CITIC Securities was China's leading security company with annual revenue of over 65 billion yuan. The company belonged to the Chinese state-owned CITIC group which was founded in 1979 and was headquartered in Beijing's Chaoyang District. It was the largest state-run conglomerate in the country.