Good morning. Many companies continue to focus on growth even during uncertain times. Take, for instance, entertainment giant Netflix, a Fortune 500 company with a nearly $450 billion market cap that has big goals.
Becoming a trillion-dollar company is “a long-term ambition,” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix told the audience during a fireside chat at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Netflix’s streaming services account for about 10% of total TV watching, and the company has “enormous room to grow,” he said. “In the previous five years, we doubled our revenue, we grew profits 10 times, and we grew our market cap three times,” he added.
There’s a path to a $1 trillion market cap, Sarandos said. “But it all is dependent upon executing well,” he said. Sarandos noted that creating in-person experiences for Netflix’s most popular shows, like the “Squid Game Experience” or creating consumer products based on shows, are additional revenue streams. The trillion-dollar club currently includes members such as several Big Tech companies and Berkshire Hathaway, the first non-tech company in the U.S. to reach a $1 trillion market cap.
Netflix, which Sarandos referred to as a tech and entertainment company, is moving full-speed ahead despite economic uncertainty that is pressuring consumer discretionary spending. The company released its first-quarter earnings results on April 17. For the quarter, Netflix beat analyst expectations on both revenue and profit. Revenue totaled $10.54 billion compared with estimates of $10.51 billion, while earnings per share of $6.61 surpassed analyst estimates of $5.71.
“We prioritize profitable growth by reinvesting in the business,” Netflix CFO Spence Neumann said during the earnings call. “We maintain ample liquidity. Those are key for us, our top two priorities.” On the call, executives pushed the idea that the company’s wide range of subscription plans—including one with ads for $8 monthly—provides customers with flexibility if they want to save money, Fortune reported.
During the discussion on Wednesday, Sarandos estimated that Netflix’s impact on the U.S. economy from 2020 to 2024 included $125 billion in contributions. In addition, 140,000 production jobs, and 500 productions across all 50 states, he said.
However, the entertainment industry “certainly is overlooked” when it comes to U.S. trade deals, Sarandos said. “We get kind of thrown under the bus on trade deals occasionally,” he said. “You hardly ever see a sitting president photographed on a studio lot.”
“We announced a billion-dollar investment in production in Mexico with president [Claudia Sheinbaum] at her morning press conference,” Sarandos explained. “I was thinking if we were building a plant to build a billion dollars worth of cars there, the [U.S.] president would certainly announce that.”
Although the entertainment industry isn’t currently in the spotlight as much as manufacturing, Netflix resonates with popular culture. The audience at the event was certainly familiar with the company’s breakaway hit miniseries “Adolescence.”
“It’s a remarkable feat in technical storytelling,” Sarandos said of the show.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Dan Brennan, EVP and CFO of Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) announced that he has elected to retire. Brennan will transition out of the CFO position at the end of June. He has been with the company for almost 30 years. Jon Monson, currently SVP of investor relations, was promoted to EVP and CFO, effective June 30. Monson previously held multiple across Boston Scientific finance, including five years as global controller and chief accounting officer.
Chris Kutsor was appointed CFO of Evolv Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: EVLV), a security technology company, effective one business day following the filing of the company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year that ended Dec. 31, 2024. Kutsor was most recently CFO and COO of Kin + Carta Plc, a software engineering digital consultancy. He subsequently helped lead the merger and integration of Kin + Carta with another portfolio company of the private equity acquirer.
Big Deal
S&P Global Market Intelligence research finds that the value of private equity and venture capital deals in healthcare technology increased to $15.62 billion in 2024 compared to $10.37 billion in 2023. In Q1, 2025, the total deal value in healthcare technology reached $2.91 billion, up almost 22% from the same period in 2024, according to the report.
“Healthcare technology remains a bright spot in the dealmaking landscape, buoyed by strong demand for digital health, AI-driven diagnostics, and care delivery innovation,” Nick Donkar, U.S. health services deals leader at PwC, told Market Intelligence.
Due to U.S. trade policies, such as tariffs that affect imports, investors will focus on companies that are good at handling these regulatory changes and are using technology to improve healthcare software solutions while reducing costs, Donkar added.
Going deeper
“The new leader of the Catholic Church will inherit a financial mess that Pope Francis spent much of his reign trying to fix” is a new Fortune report by Shawn Tully.
Tully writes: “In early 2014, I traveled to Rome for a firsthand view of all the new and historic financial guard rails and disciplines Pope Francis was installing, as well as the influx of business experts he’d summoned across the globe to assist him. When Francis took office the previous year, just about everything that involved how the Vatican handled money needed fixing: the huge and ever-rising gap between revenues and expenses; the leadership dominated by clergy lacking expertise in accounting and investing; and a scandal-scarred reputation.”
Overheard
“At the C-suite level, business decisions are human decisions. Understanding the workforce—through their daily realities—is a leader’s greatest strength.”
—Ania Smith, CEO of Taskrabbit, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, “I’m a better gig-economy leader because of the empathy I learned in early jobs.”
