Taking to the streets of London’s square mile, I asked people to predict who would top this year’s list. Their responses were telling–most couldn’t easily recall a single European company, only American brands.

So, what does the Fortune 500 Europe look like today? It is dominated by automotive, energy and finance companies. Notably, our research—led by Fortune’s Grethe Schepers—found the makeup of our 2024 list looks remarkably similar to the American 500 almost 20 years ago.

Why does this matter? It’s the long-term outlook–many of the companies topping the list today face an existential crisis as the world adapts to climate change and competition from China.

None more so than Volkswagen, which reached number No.1 on this year’s list. Yet as my colleague Ryan Hogg has written, Germany was once the economic engine of Europe, but a shifting world order has pulled the carpet out from underneath its economy, including VW. 

The only clear path forward for Europe is to innovate—or at least embrace it. We identified just 15 tech companies, including Accenture (No.41) SAP (No.114) and chipmaker ASML (No.172) on the list. By contrast, America has three times more tech companies, which account for a quarter of all profits on the US ranking.

Scale is the next biggest challenge. The European Union is the world’s largest single market but as anyone who’s spent significant time here will know, it’s the mishmash of local, national and EU-wide regulations that stifle growth—one of the many reasons Europe has never managed to build a tech giant to rival Google.

“Put simply, developing, launching or just using technology is harder in Europe than it is anywhere else in the world,” Matt Brittin, President of Google EMEA, told me, having seen first-hand the problems holding Europe back. Brittin, who is co-hosting Fortune’s CEO Forum 2024 in London today, notes that over the past five years, more than 100 new laws have been passed that govern Europe’s digital economy. 

Mark Read CBE, CEO of advertising giant WPP, works with over 300 companies in the Fortune Global 500. Like Brittin, he’s upbeat about Europe’s potential but acknowledges we’re in a perpetual game of catchup with the U.S. “Look at AI, where US companies either led initially or scaled rapidly. We have European champions, but each stage of growth is slightly harder and in a highly competitive market, those small differences matter.”

That’s not to say Europe’s twin challenges aren’t navigable. Overall the figures are positive–revenues are up 5%, profits up 8% and employment grew 3%, painting a picture of a continent far from stagnation, for now.

Our once-tech-shy Fortune 500 Europe 2024 cohort is embracing AI, albeit slowly. And perhaps most positively, one of the strengths of European business is its international nature. The collective leadership of this $14.5 trillion club is dominated by CEOs who boast extensive international experience–essential in a global economy.

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