Good morning.
The Fortune Global 500 list is out today; you can find it here.
This is our annual ranking of the world’s largest companies by revenue and the most authoritative look across industries worldwide. In aggregate, these companies had their second-most profitable year ever, racking up $2.97 trillion in earnings during fiscal 2023, up 2% from the previous year. Together, they generated revenue of $41 trillion, representing more than one-third of global GDP. They also have a combined $167.3 trillion in total assets and 70.5 million employees.
Here, we see the impact of global trends on the ground. Lower energy prices had an impact on the earnings of Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco, though the latter remains the world’s most profitable company for the third straight year, with $121 billion in earnings. Falling prices at the pump also helped boost sales for automakers such as Volkswagen and Toyota Motor. Higher interest rates and stock prices helped make financial companies the fastest-growing sector, up 21% from a year earlier to $8.6 trillion in revenue. And stronger consumer demand meant hotels, restaurants, food, and retail did well, too.
The largest company by revenue, for the 11th straight year, is Walmart, with $648 billion. The No. 2 spot goes to its e-commerce rival, Amazon. While tech companies such as Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft may be among the most valuable on the planet, revenues have grown at a decidedly more mixed pace, demonstrating the gap between expectations and results.
The bigger question for many readers is which companies being built today are likely to end up on the Fortune Global 500. As Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell points out in her editor’s note that’s also out this morning, making those bets is what venture capitalists do. One VC firm that’s especially adept at picking winners is Sequoia Capital. Michal Lev-Ram recently sat down with Sequoia partner Roelof Botha, who told her “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Here’s the interview.
This is our 35th year of ranking the Fortune Global 500. We’ve compiled the U.S.-based Fortune 500 for twice that long. Both lists give insights into the trends shaping business today, and the ones to watch for tomorrow. Here are two visualizations that let you see where the U.S. companies are based, and how they’ve moved through the ranks. We’ve partnered with Accenture to create an AI tool that will deliver ChatGPT-style responses based on 20 years of financial data from both lists, as well as related articles. Check out the latest list and stay tuned for more to come.
More news below.
Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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TOP NEWS
Asian markets meltdown
Asian equity markets plummeted, some by as much as double digits, on Monday as Friday's U.S. stock market rout spread to Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped by over 12%, erasing all its gains from this year’s record-breaking rally. Markets in Taiwan and South Korea also dropped by over 8%, with shares in tech companies such as TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix taking a beating as part of a recent sell-off in AI-related shares. Fortune
AI talent
On Friday, Google announced it would hire the cofounders of Character.ai, an AI startup that lets users train their own chatbots. It’s the latest big hire to shake up the AI startup scene, after Microsoft and its poaching of Inflection founder Mustafa Suleyman to run the Big Tech company’s AI division. Startup founders may be realizing that they can’t sustain massive fundraising rounds to cover staggeringly high computing costs. Fortune
What can businesses learn from the Olympics?
Fortune’s Geoff Colvin suggests that businesses can learn a few things from world-class sports. For one, sports teams are comfortable paying their “stars” more, while businesses sometimes struggle to compensate high performers adequately. Also: Standards keep improving, so what was considered a good performance 40 years ago may struggle today. Fortune
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Why has the world's happiest country just plummeted in expat rankings? by Rebecca Ann Hughes
What’s behind the stock market’s brutal 2-day crash? by Greg McKenna
The countries where workers and their bosses are most and least engaged by Nicolas Rapp and Matt Heimer
Chevron swears its relocation plans from California to Texas have nothing to do with politics by Sasha Rogelberg
This recession indicator is flashing red, but the ‘Sahm Rule’ creator says ‘this time really could be different’ by Will Daniel
Work-life balance is a ‘gauntlet’ for women, Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck says. ‘I’ve been a successful business lady, but that’s not enough’ by Rachel Ventresca
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
