The Future 50
The global economy today is a tale of two forces: optimism sparked by falling interest rates, and the uncertainty caused by geopolitical unrest. As companies focus on sustainable growth, such a volatile environment inevitably tests their resilience.
Since 2017, Fortune has teamed up with consulting firm BCG to produce the Future 50, an index of companies that exhibit that kind of resilience—and are built to deliver better-than-average growth in the long term. This year's list is our first to include venture-backed private companies as well as publicly traded ones. Read on for the 2024 rankings.
The Top Ten
Atlassian
+25 spotsInformation Technology
Amid the seemingly endless post-pandemic debate over returning to the office, collaboration-software company Atlassian has doubled down on remote work, both internally—it describes its own 12,000-person workforce as “fully distributed”—and in its products. The maker of enormously profitable project-management software such as Jira and Confluence has posted average revenue growth of 30% over the past three years, and generated $4.4 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, as large enterprises rely on its products to help their own far-flung teams cooperate. Atlassian’s own ultra-flexible culture has earned it a reputation as a desirable employer, attracting a strong team of tech talent. That fact, along with its strategic clarity and steady investments in R&D, helped Atlassian earn the top spot on this year’s list, up from No. 26 in 2023.
Roblox
Communication Services
Long before Facebook became Meta, this gaming platform had built a metaverse, enabling users to create and play games, attend concerts, and just hang out in virtual spaces. Roblox claims 89 million daily users, and revenue—mostly from in-game purchases and other e-commerce—is expected to top $4 billion in 2024. Challenges loom: Profits remain elusive, and critics want the company to do more to fight online predators. (Roblox says its platform is “safe and secure.”)
Monday.com
Information Technology
HubSpot
Information Technology
OpenAI
Information Technology
Three years ago, few people outside of Silicon Valley were aware of OpenAI. Today, virtually every business leader is obsessing over how to use, adapt to, or compete with ChatGPT, the large language model OpenAI invented. The protean startup has become almost synonymous with generative AI, and its groundbreaking advancements have earned it unparalleled influence. After an October funding round, the company is valued at a dizzying $157 billion.OpenAI and cofounder and CEO Sam Altman have raced to solidify this first-mover advantage: In late October, OpenAI introduced its first AI-powered search engine, and the company is tackling its ever-growing processing needs by developing its own chips in-house. The New York Times has reported that the startup anticipates $3.7 billion in revenue in 2024—and more than three times that much in 2025. The trillion-dollar question: How long can OpenAI sustain its leading position, as deep-pocketed competitors like Google, Amazon Web Services, and major OpenAI investor Microsoft strengthen their own AI products?
-8 spots