“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 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.”

Interactive – Visualize the Global 500 – “Each year a whole host of factors—the global economy, trade policies, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate upheaval among them—push and pull at the Global 500 rankings. To help you quickly see how each country is represented on the list, we put the Global 500 on a world map. Now you can see each company’s location, revenue and profit at a glance. We also invite you to take a look at how each Global 500 company has moved around in the ranks over the past two decades.”