Fortune Global 500

The world’s 500 largest companies generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits in 2019. Together, this year’s Fortune Global 500 companies employ 69.9 million people worldwide and are represented by 32 countries.

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The Top Ten

Walmart

Prev. #1

Retailing

After years of investment in its technology and stores, Walmart has indisputably emerged as a strong No. 2 to Amazon in U.S. e-commerce, with sales up 37% last year. But as the novel coronavirus pandemic showed, Walmart’s 4,600 U.S. stores have proved to be an effective weapon in its largest market by allowing curbside pickup for online orders at a time when shoppers want to limit time in stores—but who still want their orders quickly. (That sentiment is not likely to change anytime soon: In the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, the company reported "unprecedented demand" for goods that drove up U.S. comp sales by 10% and U.S. e-commerce sales by 74%.) The company's Sam’s Club division is finding renewed energy, too. Walmart is benefiting from focusing on select overseas markets, such as India and China, rather than competing everywhere.

Sinopec Group

Prev. #2

Energy

China’s state-owned petroleum and chemical giant held steady at No. 2 in this year's ranking, even as its profits fell 16.2% to $6.8 billion. Sinopec bet big on expanding production capacity last year just as oil prices grew volatile, and 2020 has been even bumpier. China's lockdown measures to counter the coronavirus pandemic clobbered energy demand as industrial activity paused. The result was a record quarterly loss in the first quarter for Sinopec, and cuts to capital spending. However, there were signs of a swift recovery: by April, the company said daily sales had returned to 90% of their pre-lockdown levels.

State Grid

+2 spotsPrev. #5

Energy

It wasn't an electric year for State Grid, China’s state-owned power company, as sales dipped just under 1% in 2019. Beijing appointed Mao Weiming as State Grid's chairman at the start of 2020, marking the first time the massive utility has been led by a chairman with no prior experience in the industry. Mao’s predecessor reportedly had objected to a government plan last year that guaranteed the power company would purchase clean energy from operators of renewable power plants. The program is tied to China's effort to green its electricity supply, but it could put a squeeze on State Grid’s profit margins. Mao is thought to be more amenable to the plan. Meanwhile, as China battles its way out of the economic slump caused by the pandemic, coal-fired power generation remains king for State Grid—at least for now.

China National Petroleum

Prev. #4

Energy

The past year brought plenty of adversity for China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the state-owned parent company of the country’s second-largest oil producer, PetroChina. Slumping oil prices and energy demand have put pressure on the industry's revenue and profit margins, and PetroChina is no exception. Even before the pandemic began, PetroChina announced a 58% drop in profits in the third quarter of last year, caused by overcapacity in China’s market for natural gas. PetroChina’s gas import business suffered a $4.3 billion net loss in 2019. Despite the headwinds, the oil and gas refiner maintains its spot at No. 4 on the Global 500 list—the same ranking it has held for four years now.

Shell

-2 spotsPrev. #3

Energy

Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas multinational, fell two spots in the Global 500 rankings this year as revenue took an 11% hit and profits fell by more than a third to $15.8 billion. Weaker oil and gas prices were to blame. And so far 2020 has been even more eventful: global lockdown measures dropped energy demand to historic lows, triggering spending cuts and a write-down of assets that could reach $22 billion. Looking forward, Shell in April said it would target net-zero emissions by 2050—the largest energy company in the world to do so.

Saudi Aramco

Prev. #6

Energy

In December 2019, Saudi Aramco made its much-anticipated debut on the Saudi Stock Exchange, becoming the world’s largest initial public offering on record. It reached a market capitalization of $2 trillion just days after its listing. The company’s landmark IPO showcased what many have long suspected: Aramco, the most profitable company in the world, netted $88 billion in total profits last year. In 2020, the company has reckoned with an oil crash amid the pandemic, but rising demand in China and hopes of a limited second wave of the pandemic had Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser believing in June that “the worst" is behind the company.

Volkswagen

+2 spotsPrev. #9

Motor Vehicles & Parts

Volkswagen, the highest-ranking automaker in this year's list, has had a turbulent year. Last September, CEO Herbert Diess and supervisory board chief Hans Dieter Pötsch were charged with alleged market manipulation over the 2015 Dieselgate scandal. In May, Volkswagen paid more than $10 million to settle the charges out of court and avoid a trial; the company also paid more than $900 million in February to settle a lawsuit by German consumers over the affair. Adding to its challenges, VW failed to get the German government to subsidize non-electric car purchases as part of its coronavirus stimulus plan. But the firm is betting big on a cleaner, smarter future. Its battery-powered, mass-market ID.3 car is set to come out later this year, and VW is investing billions in A.I., alongside partner Ford.

BP

-1 spotPrev. #7

Energy

The British energy giant fell one spot on this year’s list, as revenue dropped 7% to $283 billion, and profits dropped 57% to $4 billion, thanks to weak oil prices. So far 2020 has been marked by hits and misses. In February, BP’s new CEO, Bernard Looney, said it would become one of the first major oil and gas companies to target net-zero emissions by 2050, and that the company has since begun to lay out its plan to reduce emissions. It's still struggling with the COVID hit to energy demand, however. In June the company announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees and write off $17.5 billion in assets.

Amazon

+4 spotsPrev. #13

Retailing

A company this big shouldn’t be able to grow this fast—but Amazon’s 21% revenue growth in 2019, to $281 billion, is the reason the Seattle company has moved up four spots on the Global 500. For years a money loser, Amazon earned $11.6 billion in profit on more than $280 billion in annual sales. Key drivers for the so-called Everything Store’s growth? Its consumer bundle keeps expanding. And its Prime delivery and entertainment subscription service counts more than 150 million global customers. As in prior years, the company’s Amazon Web Services unit outpaced the company as a whole, growing revenue at a 37% clip to $35 billion. More recently, the novel coronavirus pandemic accelerated many of the company's big bets: In the company's fiscal second quarter alone (ended June 30, 2020), sales leapt up 40%, year over year, to $88.9 billion. Profits for the quarter, meanwhile, doubled, to $5.2 billion.

Toyota Motor

Prev. #10

Motor Vehicles & Parts

Tesla may have recently overtaken Toyota Motor Corporation as the world's most valuable automaker, but the Camry- and Prius-maker is still more than 10 times the size of Elon Musk's company by sales ($275 billion vs. $25 billion last year). Second only to Volkswagen among carmakers in terms of revenues, Toyota sold almost 10.5 million vehicles in the year to March 31, with sales increasing in Europe and Japan while sinking somewhat in North America and Asia. Like its peers, Toyota is now set on becoming a "mobility" company rather a plain old car manufacturer. The question now is how well Toyota will weather the COVID-19 storm, having already forecast an 80% drop in profits this year.