Fortune Global 500

The rebound from COVID-19 created a huge tailwind for the world’s largest companies by revenue. Aggregate sales for the Fortune Global 500 hit $37.8 trillion, an increase of 19%—the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history. Walmart landed at No. 1 for the ninth straight year, trailed by Amazon, which reached its highest ranking ever. Chinese energy giants State Grid, China National Petroleum, and Sinopec rounded out the top five. For the first time, revenues from Fortune Global 500 companies in Greater China (including Taiwan) exceeded revenues from U.S. companies on the list, accounting for 31% of the total. The corporations that make up our annual ranking of the world’s largest companies also reaped record-busting profits in 2021. But this year’s turmoil has confronted the leaders of the Fortune Global 500 with a new set of crises—many of them political as well as economic.

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The Top Ten

Walmart

Prev. #1

Retailing

The retail Goliath extended its streak at No. 1 on the Global 500 for a ninth consecutive year, bringing in more than $570 billion in revenue. Walmart successfully navigated a challenging 2021—sales grew by 2.4%, and profits inched up by 1.2%—owing in part to its e-commerce offerings: To better compete with delivery rivals as varied as Amazon and DoorDash, Walmart expanded its store-to-fridge delivery service, InHome; it also tested driverless delivery vehicles with Ford. Its click-and-collect curbside pickup service generated sales of $20.4 billion in 2021, a tripling over the past two years. The company’s e-commerce strategy is now in new hands: Walmart’s chief e-commerce officer, Casey Carl, retired and was replaced by Tom Ward in February 2022.

Amazon

+1 spotPrev. #3

Retailing

2021 was a tumultuous year for the e-commerce giant. Founder Jeff Bezos formally stepped down as president and CEO on July 5, 2021, and Andy Jassy, longtime head of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud juggernaut, took the reins. The company struggled with labor shortages, a massive surge in employee turnover, and the biggest unionization push since its founding. But those obstacles didn’t stop Amazon from growing its headcount by a net of 310,000 employees in 2021. It also increased its minimum hourly wage from $15 to $18 in September of that year. Amazon’s streaming service sowed the seeds for further growth as the company acquired Hollywood studio MGM in an $8.5 billion deal. Amazon Prime Day sales in 2021 reached a record-breaking total of $11.19 billion. And overall, the retail and cloud-computing powerhouse grew revenue by more than 21% and brought in $33.3 billion in profits, a stunning 56.4% increase over 2020.

State Grid

-1 spotPrev. #2

Energy

State Grid, a Chinese state-owned power company, reported profits of $7.1 billion in 2021, up 19% from the year prior. China’s largest supplier of electricity and the world’s largest utility company brought in revenue of $461 billion in 2021, enough to make it the top-earning public energy company in the world. Chinese power consumption rose 10.3% in 2021 as the economy rebounded from the pandemic-induced slump of 2020. In November 2021, following a directive from Chinese President Xi Jinping, State Grid announced the creation of a new energy exchange meant to help Chinese provinces purchase energy from one another and ease clean energy providers' access to potential buyers. Later in 2021, State Grid announced plans to adhere to another government order: It will spin off all its noncore businesses, including its manufacturing divisions, as part of the Chinese government’s efforts to introduce more competition to the sector.

China National Petroleum

Prev. #4

Energy

For evidence that China’s industrial sector rebounded with a vengeance in 2021, look no further than China National Petroleum’s balance sheet. The state-owned energy company earned $9.6 billion in profit in 2021—a 111% uptick from 2020, when China’s early COVID outbreak shuttered factories. CNP reported $411.7 billion in revenue, a 45% increase from the prior year. Reduced travel still weighed on sales of gasoline and jet fuel, but CNP more than made up for those declines with sales of chemicals that are used in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and packaging. China’s 2021 announcement that it aims to be carbon-neutral by 2060 is forcing the country’s industrial sector to reckon with its environmental footprint. In an effort to comply with Beijing’s target, CNP says its production of renewables will equal its output of oil and gas by 2035.

Sinopec Group

Prev. #5

Energy

Sinopec, China’s second-largest oil company, earned a spot on the Global 500 for the 24th consecutive year with revenue of $401.3 billion and profits of $8.3 billion, as demand for gas returned to pre-pandemic levels. Its 2021 revenue haul left it just short of its pre-pandemic 2019 total of $407 billion. Soaring crude oil prices, which rose nearly 70% in 2021, and booming demand for natural gas—up 13% as measured by cubic feet—buoyed Sinopec’s results. As it raced to meet the world’s need for energy, state-owned Sinopec allocated 27% more to operating expenses in 2021 compared with the year prior, as the company spent freely to secure more crude oil and identify potential new drilling locations.

Saudi Aramco

+8 spotsPrev. #14

Energy

State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco doubled its profits in 2021 from the year prior as oil prices skyrocketed to keep up with demand from the post-COVID travel boom; its $105.4 billion in profits were the highest of any company in the Global 500. Oil prices climbed even further in early 2022—at one point hitting $110 per barrel—following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The surge briefly made Saudi Aramco the world’s most valuable company, ahead of Apple, and the oil giant’s market cap remained well above $2 trillion in mid-2022. The energy crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict has given the company fresh incentive to pump more oil in coming years despite government and corporate pledges to reduce reliance on fossil fuel; Saudi Aramco has said it wants to reach 13 million barrels a day by 2027.

Apple

-1 spotPrev. #6

Technology

Despite facing global setbacks, Apple hit multiple positive milestones in 2021. After many of its factories and those of its suppliers were shut down in China owing to COVID, Apple was forced to rethink its supply chain. The global chip shortage added further pressure, costing Apple billions in revenue. But after the company switched to designing more chip components in-house, sales picked up. And Apple finished the year with a gargantuan $94 billion in profits—outperforming every other U.S. company on that front. Apple also gained significant market share in the U.S. personal computing market with its Mac lineup, bringing in a record $37.4 billion in sales. In entertainment, the company made headlines at the Oscars after Apple TV+ became the first streaming service to win the coveted Best Picture award, for its coming-of-age drama CODA. Apple remained the big dog of the Trillion-Dollar Club, too: Its market valuation briefly topped $3 trillion in January 2022, though by August it had receded to a mere $2.4 trillion—still higher than any other publicly traded company. Not everything was rosy for CEO Tim Cook: In early 2022, he faced considerable employee backlash for receiving a hefty $99 million pay package in 2021, and the company has been forced to delay its return-to-office plans.

Volkswagen

+2 spotsPrev. #10

Motor Vehicles & Parts

The German automaker made headway on its ambitious goal to overtake Tesla in the electric vehicle market by 2025; it doubled its EV production in 2021. Yet Tesla still far outpaces Volkswagen—VW delivered 452,000 EVs globally in 2021 compared with Tesla’s 936,172. Volkswagen has set other lofty goals for its EV business: By 2030, Volkswagen wants half of its total sales to come from EVs, up from 7.5% in 2021. To meet its targets, Volkswagen has set aside $100 billion for EV production expenditures to be used by 2026; committed to constructing six factories for its new battery company, PowerCo, by 2030; and started producing its bestselling electric SUV, the ID.4, in Chattanooga. In the U.S., Volkswagen is also partnering with recycling startup Redwood Materials to operate its EV battery recycling program. VW sold 600,000 fewer cars overall in 2021 than the year prior as a result of the semiconductor shortage, but the carmaker still increased revenue by 16.5%, making good on its strategy to sell more higher-end models.

China State Construction Engineering

+4 spotsPrev. #13

Engineering & Construction

China State Construction and Engineering is the world’s largest construction firm, with 2021 revenues of $293.7 billion, a record 17.1% increase from the previous year. It has recently completed high-profile construction projects, including the building of 28 Winter Olympics venues and 100 “emergency hospitals” to address pandemic-related medical needs. The company has also won contracts for infrastructure projects at home and abroad. It will soon break ground on a 5G network in China's Henan Province, a solar-cell power plant in China's Shaanxi province, and the North East Rail Line in Victoria, Australia.

CVS Health

-3 spotsPrev. #7

Health Care

CVS outpaced analyst expectations for 2021 under the leadership of Karen Lynch, who came aboard as CEO in February. The company reported $292 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended December 2021—an 8.7% increase year over year. In a quest to revolutionize America’s access to health care, Lynch initiated a plan to transform hundreds of CVS stores into super-clinics that provide primary care—creating what will become the nation’s biggest network of urgent care and primary care outlets. CVS also played a major role in fighting COVID-19, administering over 50 million vaccines and 29 million tests through December 2021. In the fight to retain talent, CVS announced a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, effective July 2022.