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The 2015 Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. In total, the Fortune 500 companies account for $12.5 trillion in revenues, $945 billion in profits, $17 trillion in market value and employ 26.8 million people worldwide.

The discount retailer is at a crossroads: how to transition from the big-box era that propelled it to the world's largest company, to one in which customers are fussier about what they eat and can easily comparison shop thanks to the internet. In 2014, under new CEO Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart's U.S. finally broke a nearly two-year streak of growth-free quarters on the comparable sales front. But that recovery is tenuous: it is still struggling to get people into its stores, and it has suffered from out-of-stocks and customer service that many find wanting. Last year saw a lot of turmoil: it replaced the CEO of its $288 billion U.S. division and lost its chief merchant. But the company has made strides in improving the quality of fresh food in its stores—about 55% of revenue comes from grocery. Its e-commerce investments are paying off too. Still, Wal-Mart is grappling with ever more aggressive rivals like Target and Amazon, the proliferation of dollar stores and a desire for healthier grocery offerings, meaning 2015 is a key year for McMillon to prove he can modernize Wal-Mart.

Walmart

It takes more than plummeting oil prices to knock Exxon Mobil out of the No. 2 spot on this list (especially when the closest competitor suffered from the same industry woes). Surprisingly, Exxon actually saw less severe revenue decline in 2014 (6.1%), when a worldwide oil glut cut crude prices by more than half, than it did a year earlier. Net income was basically flat year-over-year after dropping by 27% in 2013. The company plans to take an aggressive approach with higher-margin oil and gas plays in the U.S., including Bakken and Permian. Overseas, Exxon has new projects planned in Indonesia, Canada and the Middle East after suffering a huge letdown in the Arctic, where its Russian joint venture is on hold due to economic sanctions.

Exxon Mobil

The second-largest oil company in the U.S. held on to the third spot on this list despite another year of falling revenue and slipping profits. Crashing crude prices did nothing to help Chevron in 2014, leading to a 13% cut in capital and exploratory spending this year. The company did hit on exploration success last year, though, adding the equivalent of more than a billion barrels of oil through discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico as well as Australia, Canada and the U.S.'s Permian basin. Chevron is also counting on future gains from a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project kicking off in Western Australia...

Chevron

Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway now owns dozens of companies, from insurance company Geico to underwear maker Fruit of the Loom to railroad giant Burlington Northern. And despite its size, Berkshire's revenue has continued to grow faster than the rest of the economy. Along with Brazilian investment firm 3G, Berkshire now own a large stake of the new Kraft Heinz food company. But Buffett has faced more criticism of late. And some of his largest investments like IBM and Coca-Cola haven't performed well lately.

Berkshire Hathaway

After a bumpy start to 2014, Apple's stock finished the year up 40%, adding nearly $200 billion to the company's market value. A product pipeline that's gotten Apple fanboys lining up all over again has certainly helped reenergize revenue growth: In addition to unveiling new categories like Apple Pay and Apple Watch, the company launched the iPhone 6, selling a record-breaking 10 million units in the first three days. As CEO Tim Cook recently told investors: "It's tough to find something in the numbers not to like." The normally low-profile Cook is breaking new ground in other ways too—in October, 2014 he came out as the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Apple

Here's how you'd sum up 2014 for General Motors in three words: recalls, recalls, recalls. The iconic American auto brand spent most of the year dealing with an ever-expanding recall scandal that saw CEO Mary Barra appear in front of Congress multiple times and the establishing of a $400 million-plus compensation protocol for victims of GM's faulty ignition switches. Despite all this, though, sales were strong throughout the year, as GM rode the wave of industry-wide gains.

General Motors

Revenue declined 7% last year, knocking Phillips 66 slightly down the list once again three years after spinning off from ConocoPhillips. Earnings were up about 28%, though, led by growth in the refining company's pipelines and chemicals businesses. CEO Greg Garland plans further expansion in those areas, with investments going toward pipelines with the capacity to carry 450,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota's Bakken region as well as a joint venture with Chevron looking to capitalize on low-cost petrochemicals on the Gulf Coast.

Phillips 66

GE announced in April that it would offload its consumer lending business over the next two years, trading the risk and uncertainty of big banking for a reassertion of the company's industrial might. The move could help the maker of jet engines, medical devices, and oil drilling equipment reclaim its title as one of the greatest dividend stocks in the S&amp;P 500. (Through share buybacks and dividends, the company plans to return more than $90 billion to investors by 2018.) Meanwhile, GE is doubling down on its energy stakes, tendering a nearly $14 billion bid to acquire the French industrial giant Alstom's gas and steam turbine business in what would be GE's biggest deal ever. CEO Jeff Immelt is powering ahead with the company's transformation. As he told a graduating class at Siena College in New York: "At GE, we have a purpose. We move, build, power and cure the world."

General Electric

For Ford, 2014 could be seen as a sort of "rebuilding year"—sales were down while most of their competitors saw sales go up, but a lot of that was planned. The company was in the middle of changing its factories over to start production of the new aluminum 2015 F-150, which is still the most popular truck in the US. For this reason, automotive revenue and operating margin were down, but the company is expecting a big rebound in 2015.

Ford Motor

CVS Health is betting big on the future of health care in the U.S. The company is already the biggest retailer of prescription drugs and the second-largest pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S.—and is expanding its reach to become a fully integrated provider of health services. That became especially apparent in May with its $12.7 billion purchase of Omnicare, a drug delivery company that also helps senior-living centers manage residents' medications. The purchase, its largest since 2007 when it paid $21.7 billion for pharmacy benefits manager Caremark Rx, gives the retailer greater strategic reach as it looks to serve an aging population with greater care needs. The Omnicare deal builds on a grander shift managed by CEO Larry Merlo, transforming the drug store chain into a full-service health management company. Within the last year, the company swept cigarettes off its shelves, changed its name to CVS Health from CVS Caremark and made plans to expand its in-store health clinics by about 600 locations by 2017. The moves position CVS Health, which operates about 7,700 retail pharmacies and 900 walk-in clinics, as an equipped provider for patients.

CVS Health

The Top 10

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Fortune 500

The Top 10

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