List of largest companies in the world by revenue

Top 10 largest companies in the world by revenue

The rebound from COVID-19 has created a huge tailwind for the world's biggest companies in terms of revenue. Overall sales of the Fortune Global 500 reached $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 year in a row, behind Amazon, which reached its highest ranking ever. Chinese energy giants State Grid, China National Petroleum, and Sinopec round out the top five. For the first time, the revenue of Global 500 companies in Greater China (including Taiwan) exceeded that of US companies, accounting for 31% of the total. The corporations that make up our annual ranking of the world's largest companies also posted record-real profits in 2021. But this year's turmoil has left Fortune Global 500 leaders facing a new set of challenges — many of them political and economic.

1. Walmart

The retail goliath extended its streak to No. 1 on the Global 500 for the ninth consecutive year, bringing in more than $570 billion in revenue. Walmart successfully navigated a challenging 2021—sales grew 2.4%, and profits grew 1.2%—due in part to its e-commerce offerings: To better compete with diversified delivery rivals like Amazon and DoorDash, Walmart expanded its store-to-Fridge Delivery Service, In-home; It has also tested driverless delivery vehicles with Ford. Its click-and-collect curbside pickup service is expected to generate $20.4 billion in sales in 2021, more than 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, has retired and was replaced by Tom Ward in February 2022.

2. Amazon

2021 was a tumultuous year for the e-commerce giant. Founder Jeff Bezos officially stepped down as president and CEO on July 5, 2021, and longtime head of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud juggernaut Andy Jessy took the reins. The company struggled with labor shortages, a huge spike in employee turnover, and the biggest unionization push since its founding. But those hurdles haven't stopped Amazon from growing its headcount by a net 310,000 employees in 2021. It raised its minimum hourly wage from $15 to $18 in September of that year. Amazon's streaming service sowed 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 profit, a stunning 56.4% increase over 2020.

3. State Grid

State Grid, a Chinese state-owned power company, expects to earn $7.1 billion in 2021, up 19% from the previous year. China's largest supplier of electricity and the world's largest utility company is expected to bring in $461 billion in revenue in 2021, enough to make it the world's top-grossing public energy company. Chinese electricity consumption rose 10.3% in 2021 as the economy recovered from a pandemic-induced slowdown in 2020. Following a directive from Chinese President Xi Jinping, in November 2021, State Grid announced the creation of a new energy exchange to help Chinese provinces purchase power from each other and facilitate access to clean energy providers to potential buyers. Later in 2021, State Grid announced plans to comply with another government order: it would shut down all of its non-core businesses, including its manufacturing division, as part of the Chinese government's efforts to introduce more competition in the sector.

4. China National Petroleum

China National Petroleum Corporation is a major national oil and Gas Corporation in China and one of the largest integrated energy groups in the world. Its headquarters are in Dongcheng District, Beijing. CNPC was ranked fourth in the 2020 Fortune Global 500, a global ranking of the largest corporations by revenue. For proof that China's industrial sector is set to revive with a vengeance in 2021, look no further than China National Petroleum. The state-owned energy company posted profits of $9.6 billion in 2021, up 111% from 2020 when factories were shut down in China's initial Covid outbreak. CNP reported revenue of $411.7 billion, a 45% increase from the prior year. Lower travel still weighed on sales of gasoline and jet fuel, but CNP made up for that decline with sales of chemicals used in the manufacture 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 targets, the CNP has said its renewable generation will equal its oil and gas production by 2035.

5. Sinopec Group

China Petrochemical Corporation or Sinopec Group is the world's largest oil refining, gas, and petrochemical conglomerate, managed by SASAC for the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It is headquartered in Chaoyangmenwai, Beijing, across the street from the headquarters of the fellow state-owned oil company and competitor CNOOC Group. China's second-largest oil company is Sinopec, earned a spot on the Global 500 for the 24th consecutive year with revenue of $401.3 billion and profit of $8.3 billion, as gas demand returned to pre-pandemic levels. Its 2021 revenue collection leaves it well short of its pre-pandemic 2019 total of $407 billion. Rising crude oil prices, which are set to rise nearly 70% in 2021, and rising demand for natural gas - up 13% as measured by cubic feet - buoyed Sinopec's results. As it races to meet the world's energy needs, state-owned Sinopec has earmarked 27% more for operating costs in 2021 than a year earlier, as the company spends freely to secure more crude oil and identify potential new drilling locations.

6. Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran. As of 2020, it is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue. Saudi Aramco has the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves, more than 270 billion barrels, and the largest daily oil production of all oil-producing companies. It has been the single largest contributor to global carbon emissions of any company in the world since 1965. On 11 May 2022, Saudi Aramco surpassed Apple Inc. to become the world's largest company by market cap. State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco has doubled its profits in 2021 from the previous year as oil prices skyrocket to keep up with demand from the post-Covid travel boom; It's $105.4 billion profit was the highest of any Global 500 company. Oil prices rose further in early 2022—at one point hitting $110 a barrel following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The growth briefly made Saudi Aramco the world's most valuable company ahead of Apple, and the oil giant's market cap was above $2 trillion by mid-2022. The energy crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict has given the company a new incentive to pump more oil in the coming years, despite government and corporate pledges to reduce reliance on fossil fuels; Saudi Aramco says it wants to reach 13 million barrels per day by 2027.

Saudi Aramco is headquartered in Dhahran, but its operations span the globe and include exploration, production, refining, chemicals, distribution, and marketing. All these activities of the company are monitored by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Mineral Resources. However, in this case, the responsibility of the ministry is much greater than that of the council.

7. Apple

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling US$365.8 billion in 2021) and, as of June 2022, the world's largest company by market capitalization, the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales, and the second-largest mobile phone vendor. Manufacturer, it is one of America's five largest information technology companies, along with Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.

Despite facing global turmoil, Apple has hit several positive milestones in 2021 after many of its factories and suppliers in China shut down due to COVID, Apple was forced to rethink its supply chain. A global chip shortage has added to the pressure, costing Apple billions in revenue. But after the company designed more chip components in-house, sales soared. And Apple ended the year with a whopping $94 billion profit — outpacing other US companies on that front. Apple gained significant market share in the US personal computing market with its Mac lineup, which brought in record sales of $37.4 billion. Apple was also the big dog in the trillion-dollar club: Its market value briefly topped $3 trillion in January 2022, though by August it had fallen to just $2.4 trillion—still more than any other publicly traded company. All was not rosy for CEO Tim Cook: In early 2022, he faced enough employee backlash to receive a hefty $99 million pay package in 2021, and the company was forced to delay his plans to return to the office.

8. Volkswagen

Volkswagen AG, internationally known as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines, and turbomachinery as well as offers related services including financing, leasing, and fleet management. In 2016, it was the world's largest automaker in terms of sales, and retained this title in 2017, 2018, and 2019, selling 10.9 million vehicles. It has maintained the largest market share in Europe for over two decades. It is ranked seventh on the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. The German automaker has advanced its ambitious goal of surpassing Tesla in the electric car market by 2025; it plans to double its EV production in 2021. Yet Tesla still outpaces Volkswagen—VW delivered 452,000 EVs worldwide in 2021, compared to 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 goals, Volkswagen has earmarked $100 billion for EV production costs. Used by 2026; committed to building six factories for its new battery company, Powerco, by 2030; and began production of its best-selling electric SUV, the ID.4, in Chattanooga.

9. China State Construction Engineering

China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) is the world's largest construction company by revenue and the 8th largest general contractor by overseas sales as of 2020. It is the world's largest construction company, with revenues of $293.7 billion in 2021, a record 17.1% increase over the previous year. It recently completed high-profile construction projects, including the construction of 28 Winter Olympic 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 a North East rail line in Victoria, Australia.

10. CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provider, among many other brands. The company is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. CVS beat analysts' expectations for 2021 under the leadership of Karen Lynch, who took over as CEO in February. The company reported $292 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending in December 2021—an 8.7% year-over-year increase. In an effort to revolutionize America's access to health care, Lynch launched a plan to convert hundreds of CVS stores into super-clinics that offer primary care—creating the nation's largest network of urgent care and primary care outlets. CVS has also played a major role in the fight against COVID-19, administering more than 50 million vaccines and 29 million tests through December 2021. In the fight to retain talent, CVS announced a minimum wage increase of $15 an hour, effective July 2022.