This edition of the Fortune Analytics newsletter kicks off a biweekly series, highlighting the Fortune 500 (largest U.S. companies by revenue) list, out today; the forthcoming Fortune Southeast Asia 500, debuting later this month; and the annual Fortune Global 500, slated for Aug. 1.
Each year, our tireless research team crunches the numbers that comprise our Fortune 500 rankings. But most societal and economic paradigm shifts reveal themselves only gradually. The performances of companies in various sectors in any given year further cement trends that have been in progress years and even decades prior.
For example, the technology and health care sectors make up a significant proportion of the upper ranks of this year’s Fortune 500. That seems unremarkable in 2024 but stands in stark contrast to the list's makeup during the 20th century. Back then, manufacturing or "industrial" companies made up a much larger share of the U.S. economy and were so important that they were the only ones the Fortune 500 ranked (as Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell explains in her editor's letter in our current issue).
So perhaps nobody will be surprised to learn this year that Walmart, Amazon.com, and UnitedHealth Group are enormous. But we conduct our analysis despite the self-evident nature of many of the findings, because when we do detect even the smallest shifts, we know the implications are likely to be massive. As the pace of technological change has accelerated, amid the themes we take for granted today, we see new trends bear themselves out much more abruptly. Case in point: The rise of AI and thereby, the rise in Fortune 500 rank of companies at the forefront of the AI revolution.
We gauge these changes in other ways throughout the year, from our daily reporting on venture funding and market fluctuations to our interviews with Fortune 500 executives who tell us about their biggest projects and preoccupations. To see the annual list bring into clearer focus the changes we've collectively observed is affirming not only to our researchers and reporters but also to the business leaders who make the decisions that, in turn, directly shape the ranking.
Here are some of the findings that stood out among this year's Fortune 500, the 70th edition of which published this morning.
The numbers to know
12... The number of consecutive years Walmart has topped the list at No. 1.
9... The number of Fortune 500 companies with at least $1 trillion in total assets on the balance sheet.
$7.1 billion... The revenue threshold for making the 2024 Fortune 500 list, down 2% from a year ago.
$1.72 trillion... The combined profits of all 500 companies on the list, up 10% from 2023.
$3.1 trillion… The market value of Microsoft, America’s most valuable company, as of March 2024.
88... The average age in years of a Fortune 500 company.
The big picture
This year marks the 70th edition of the Fortune 500. There are 49 companies that have been on the Fortune 500 every year since it was first published, as a no-frills insert in the front of the July 1955 issue of the print magazine. Those all-timers include Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Chevron, and General Electric. A total of 170 companies, meanwhile, have been on the Fortune 500 every year since 1995 (the first year service companies were included in the list). That group includes Walmart, Microsoft, and JPMorgan Chase.
