global 500

Christina Austin

The world's 500 largest companies generated $31.2 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in profits in 2014. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 employ 65 million people worldwide and are represented by 36 countries.

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

Sinopec remains Asia's largest oil refiner and a king in China's state-owned corporate hierarchy. However, following a 30% decline in profits in 2014 amid lower oil prices, failed overseas investments, and a corruption crackdown that has targeted the company's senior officials, Sinopec no longer looks invincible. Last year marked Sinopec's worst year of financial performance since the financial crisis, and executives have remained out of the limelight amid the corruption crackdown, which has diminished the influence of oil companies in the country.

Sinopec Group

Another year, another drop in the rankings for Royal Dutch Shell, which topped this list just two years ago. A 6.7% sales drop marked the third-straight year of declining revenue, as increased supply and weak demand sent the price of crude oil plummeting. Profits also dipped yet again, but the 9% drop was much easier to swallow than the previous year's 38% decline. After his first year on the job, CEO Ben van Beurden said he doesn't want to miss out on growth opportunities because of weak demand, but he also signaled that Shell will reduce spending in 2015. However, that spending slowdown did not stop Shell from swooping in to buy rival oil and gas producer BG Group for $70 billion in early 2015.

Royal Dutch Shell

Known as the parent company of PetroChina, China's biggest oil producer was hurt by lower oil prices throughout the year. Profits fell by 17%. Like its state-owned rival Sinopec, CNPC was also the focus of an intense anti-corruption campaign. In fact, CNPC has been one of the campaign's prime targets over the past two years. Zhou Yongkang, former CNPC chairman, was jailed for life this year on graft charges. His case highlighted Beijing's efforts to break the power clique at CNPC. During the year, CNPC's strong refining and distribution businesses helped mitigate losses from oil price declines.

China National Petroleum

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 fell apart due to economic sanctions.

Exxon Mobil

The British oil giant's revenue declined by 9.5% to $359 billion last year, as price volatility proved to be a drag on the energy industry. BP's profits also plummeted to $3.8 billion after doubling to $23.4 billion the previous year. BP chair Carl-Henric Svanberg reflected on 2015 by saying his company started the year confidently only to end it "with significant uncertainties." At least one uncertainty became more clear recently with the nearly $19 billion settlement of claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Though the black eye BP suffered as a result of that accident isn't going away anytime soon.

Last year, the world's largest utility announced $65 billion in annual spending for the next five years to upgrade its network to handle China's massive alternative energy supply. State Grid already operates the world's largest solar farm, but transporting that supply across the country is what it needs to upgrade in the future as it plans to reduce the percentage of coal used to produce electricity. The state-owned enterprise is also building so-called "ultra high voltage" power lines across the country to transport wind and solar-produced energy from the western desert areas to population centers in China's central and eastern provinces.

State Grid

For Volkswagen, 2014 was a generally good year. The company saw increases in sales in Europe and Australia. It showed some growth in North America, though it did not keep pace with the continent's overall auto market growth. The company recently announced that it was planning to introduce a line of low cost cars in China, a huge emerging market for the auto industry.

Volkswagen

Japanese automaker Toyota has been stung in the past year by a series of recalls related to faulty airbags from supplier Takata. Expect that to remain in the news and on the minds of executives in the coming year, but sales should still be strong, especially in North America.

Toyota Motor

The Swiss commodities and mining company held on to its spot in the top 10 despite a 5% dip in revenue, to $221 billion, as commodity prices slumped across the board. Glencore did post a profit of $2.3 billion after losing more than three times that amount in 2013 following the acquisition of Anglo-Swiss mining company Xstrata.

Global 500

The Top 10