As we enter 2026, Fortune is gearing up to release our fourth edition of the Fortune 500 Europe list, celebrating the region’s most successful companies through the framework of one of business’s best-known accolades. To truly understand these companies, we are embarking on a program of webinar masterclasses, executive interviews and strategy deep-dives, leading up to an exclusive London event for CEOs in September. For leaders of Fortune 500 Europe brands—and those who aspire to be them—this will be a one-stop shop for celebrating successes, learning from challenges and benchmarking strategies against those of their peers.
Last year, the Fortune 500 list celebrated its 71st anniversary. While the Europe-specific list is a much younger member of the family, it nevertheless celebrates the same values of resilience, adaptability and business success.
It is a difficult time to be a European business. In his speech at Davos in January, President Donald Trump was less than complimentary about the continent, calling out European countries for investing in green energy, importing too much from foreign countries and failing to check mass migration. Europe-headquartered organizations are grappling with an uncertain economic outlook, a volatile geopolitical landscape, and a wave of technological change which is upending everything from product development to talent management.
But, here at Fortune, we feel much more optimistic about the state of things. Last year’s Fortune 500 Europe list featured 36 new companies, showing there is still room for maneuver—and growth—even at the highest levels of business. These companies run the gamut of sectors, from agribusiness to publishing, financial services to manufacturing.
Europe is still home to some of the world’s greatest innovators. From L’Oreal—which has been successfully transforming itself from a beauty brand to a technology company for over a decade—to Nokia—which began life as a pulp mill in the 19th century before becoming known for making indestructible mobile phones and, now, the networking technology which connects everything from antennas to data centers.
Europe’s businesses understand the power of the pivot, but also the power of legacy. Some list members have roots reaching back hundreds of years, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Banco Santander and Barclays. These are brands which bring heritage and experience unparalleled in some of their global peers.
As we enter the fourth year of the Fortune 500 Europe, and begin compiling the 2026 list, we want to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of some of the continent’s most impressive companies. Over the next nine months, we will be running a series of virtual discussions exploring what makes a Fortune 500 Europe business tick. Talking to leaders from some of the most successful companies in the region, these sessions will cover how to navigate the talent crisis, prioritize purpose and measure the ROI of AI projects—plus much more.
This will culminate in our London-based CEO Forum on September 16th, an invite-only gathering for those at the helm of these businesses, and an opportunity for benchmarking strategies, sharing ideas and networking within the CEO peer community.
