Earlier today, Fortune magazine released the latest 2022 Global Fortune 500 list. According to the list, Walmart ranked first for the ninth consecutive year. Amazon ranked second, and the third place belongs to State Grid
American retail chain Walmart recorded a staggering annual revenue of $572.754 billion in 2021, ranking first for the ninth year in a row. Another American company, Amazon followed Walmart, reaching the company’s highest ever ranking.
What’s more interesting, in the top ten, there are four Chinese companies. Thus, American and Chinese companies have equal representatives in the top ten.
In the top ten, we can also mention names such as Saudi Aramco (sixth), technology giant Apple (seventh), automaker Volkswagen Group (eighth), and US pharmacy chain CVS Health (tenth). As you guess, the rest are Chinese firms.
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Note: Apple was 12th two years ago.
Fortune 500 In Numbers
The world economy is still struggling to restart amid the epidemic. The combined operating income of the 500 companies on the latest list Fortune 500 has reached $37.8 trillion. This is equivalent to the global GDP in 2021. Interestingly, two-fifths of China’s GDP is close to the combined GDP of China and the U.S., with a year-on-year increase of 19%. This is the highest annual growth rate ever recorded on the list.
“Fortune” magazine also emphasized that the revenue of Chinese companies on the list accounted for 31% of the total revenue of the 500 companies on the list, surpassing the United States (30%) for the first time.
In addition, the combined net profit of all companies on the Fortune 500 list this year is about US$3.1 trillion. It’s a sharp increase of 88% year-on-year and the largest increase since 2004.
On the profit list, Saudi Aramco topped the list with US$105.369 billion, followed by Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Google parent company Alphabet, and Microsoft. China’s three major commercial banks, ICBC, China Construction Bank, and Agricultural Bank, continued to rank among the top ten.
