Fortune 500

The Fortune 500, created by Edgar P. Smith, was first published in 1955.[2] The original top ten companies were General Motors, Jersey Standard, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Esmark, Chrysler, Armour, Gulf Oil, Mobil, and DuPont.[5]

The original Fortune 500 was limited to companies whose revenues were derived from manufacturing, mining, and energy exploration. At the same time, Fortune published companion "Fortune 50" lists of the 50 largest commercial banks (ranked by assets), utilities (ranked by assets), life insurance companies (ranked by assets), retailers (ranked by gross revenues) and transportation companies (ranked by revenues). Fortune magazine changed its methodology in 1994 to include service companies. With the change came 291 new entrants to the famous list including three in the Top 10.[6] There is a lag in creating the list, so for example, the 2019 Fortune 500 is based on each company's financial years ending in late 2018 (most commonly, on December 31), or early 2019.

As of 2020, the Fortune 500 companies represent approximately two-thirds of the United States' Gross Domestic Product with approximately $14.2 trillion in revenue, $1.2 trillion in profits, and $20.4 trillion in total market value. These revenue figures also account for approximately 18% of the gross world product. The companies collectively employ a total of 29.2 million people worldwide, or nearly 0.4% of the world's total population.[7]

The following is the list of top 10 companies.[8]

Fortune 500 list of 2021

Rank	Company	State	Industry	Revenue in USD
1	Walmart	Arkansas	General merchandisers	$572.8 billion
2	Amazon	Washington	Internet service and retailing	$469.8 billion
3	Apple	California	Computers, office equipment	$365.8 billion
4	CVS Health	Rhode Island	Health care: pharmacy and other services	$292.1 billion
5	UnitedHealth Group	Minnesota	Health care: insurance and managed care	$287.6 billion
6	ExxonMobil	Texas	Petroleum refining	$285.6 billion
7	Berkshire Hathaway	Nebraska	Insurance: property and casualty (stock)	$276.1 billion
8	Alphabet	California	Internet services and retailing	$257.6 billion
9	McKesson	Texas	Wholesalers: health care	$238.2 billion
10	AmerisourceBergen	Pennsylvania	Wholesalers: health care	$214.0 billion

Breakdown by state

This is the list of the top 10 states with the most companies within the Fortune 500.[9]

Breakdown by state

Rank	State	Companies
1	California	53
	New York	53
3	Texas	49
4	Illinois	28
5	Ohio	25
6	Pennsylvania	24
7	Virginia	22
8	Florida	20
9	Georgia	19
10	Massachusetts	18
	Minnesota	18

• Official website
• Full list of Fortune 500 companies: 1955–2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022