Fortune 500 Companies List: The Complete 2026 Report
In this report: the full 2026 Fortune 500 companies list breakdown, with revenue, rankings, salaries and state data.
The 500 largest companies in the United States generated a combined $21.0 trillion in revenue and $2.1 trillion in profit in their 2025 fiscal year, representing roughly two-thirds of total US GDP (source: Fortune).
BestFirms tracks the companies, industries, and compensation data that define the US business landscape, and few datasets define it as completely as the Fortune 500. The list, now in its 72nd year, ranks American corporations purely by annual revenue, which makes it the cleanest available measure of commercial scale rather than valuation or hype. This report breaks down the full 2026 Fortune 500 companies list: who ranks where, how much they earn, where they are headquartered, how many people they employ, what they pay, and what the year over year movement signals about the US economy.
Key Takeaways
- Amazon ranks No. 1 with more than $715 billion in 2025 revenue.
- The 2026 Fortune 500 earned $21.0 trillion combined, up 5% year over year.
- Texas leads all states with 57 Fortune 500 headquarters and $2.8 trillion revenue.
- Fortune 500 headcount fell 1% to 30.5 million, a second consecutive decline.
- A record 55 Fortune 500 companies are led by women, equal to 11%.
What the Fortune 500 Actually Measures
The Fortune 500 ranks the largest US corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years.
It is not a ranking of market capitalization, profitability, brand strength, or employee count, which is why a company like Nvidia can be the most valuable business in America while ranking 16th by revenue.
Eligibility requires that a company be incorporated and operate in the United States, and that it files financial statements with a government agency.
That means both publicly traded companies and large private or cooperative entities can qualify, provided their numbers are public.
The revenue cutoff moves every year. For the 2026 edition, a company needed at least $7.5 billion in annual revenue to make the list, up 5% from the prior year (source: The Center Square).
That floor is the single best indicator of how large-cap America is compounding. A business that would have comfortably made the cut a decade ago now sits well outside it.
The 2026 Fortune 500 in Numbers
The headline aggregates for the 2026 list are the largest ever recorded in nominal terms.
| Metric | 2026 Fortune 500 | Year over year |
|---|---|---|
| Combined revenue | $21.0 trillion | Up 5% |
| Combined profit | $2.1 trillion | Up 12% |
| Combined market value | $55 trillion | Up 19% |
| Total employees | 30.5 million | Down 1% |
| Revenue threshold | $7.5 billion | Up 5% |
| Cities represented | 229 | Across 39 states |
Source: Fortune
Profits grew more than twice as fast as revenue, and market value grew nearly four times as fast, in a fiscal year shaped heavily by AI capital spending.
Understanding which sectors capture that margin expansion is a separate question, and our breakdown of the most profitable industries in 2026 covers where the operating leverage actually sits.
Top 10 Fortune 500 Companies in 2026
The top ten companies each cleared $320 billion in annual revenue and combined for roughly $4.5 trillion, meaning ten businesses account for more than a fifth of all Fortune 500 revenue.
| Rank | Company | Sector |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon | Retail and cloud |
| 2 | Walmart | Retail |
| 3 | UnitedHealth Group | Healthcare |
| 4 | Apple | Technology |
| 5 | Alphabet | Technology |
| 6 | CVS Health | Healthcare |
| 7 | Berkshire Hathaway | Conglomerate |
| 8 | McKesson | Healthcare distribution |
| 9 | Exxon Mobil | Energy |
| 10 | Cencora | Healthcare distribution |
Source: Fortune
Half of the top ten are healthcare or healthcare distribution businesses, a structural feature of the list that surprises people expecting a technology sweep.
Healthcare generated $3.6 trillion in combined revenue and placed eight companies in the top 25.
Amazon Ends Walmart's 13-Year Run at No. 1
The defining change on the 2026 list is at the very top.
Amazon posted more than $715 billion in 2025 revenue, a 12% jump, edging out Walmart at more than $713 billion despite Walmart recording its highest annual revenue ever (source: NewsNation).
Three details make this more than a scoreboard change:
- Amazon debuted on the Fortune 500 at No. 492 just over two decades ago.
- Only four companies have ever held No. 1 in 72 years: General Motors, ExxonMobil, Walmart, and now Amazon.
- Walmart fell to No. 2 for the first time since 2012 (source: GeekWire).
Alphabet moved up two spots to No. 5 and repeated as the most profitable company on the list, with $132 billion in earnings, a Fortune 500 record.
Microsoft climbed one position to No. 11, its highest ranking ever. Nvidia, at No. 16, became the first Fortune 500 company to reach a $4 trillion market value and overtook Apple as the most valuable company in America, having debuted at No. 387 in 2017.
Sector Breakdown: Who Dominates the List
Financial services is the single largest sector by company count on the 2026 Fortune 500, with 95 companies, up two from the prior year.
Those firms produced $4.1 trillion in revenue, up 7%, and more than $474 billion in profit, up 3%.
| Sector | Notable 2026 figure |
|---|---|
| Financials | 95 companies, $4.1 trillion revenue |
| Healthcare | $3.6 trillion revenue, 8 of the top 25 |
| Retailing | Largest by headcount, just over 7 million employees |
| Technology | 3.8 million employees, second largest by headcount |
Source: Fortune
The gap between revenue leadership and employment leadership is the interesting story here. Retail employs the most people. Technology and financials capture disproportionate profit.
That divergence maps closely onto the wider structure of the US economy, which we cover in our analysis of the biggest industries in the US.
Where Fortune 500 Companies Are Headquartered
The 2026 list spans 229 cities across 39 states, meaning 11 states host no Fortune 500 headquarters at all.
| State | Headquarters | Combined revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | 57 | $2.8 trillion |
| California | 56 | $2.7 trillion |
| New York | 53 | $2.2 trillion |
Source: The Center Square
Texas leads on count and combined revenue for the first time.
California leads on nearly every other measure: its Fortune 500 companies are the most profitable at $647 billion, the most valuable at $20 trillion, and employ more people than any other state at 2.8 million workers.
At the city level, New York City hosts the most headquarters with 43, followed by Houston with 25, Chicago with 14, Atlanta with 13, and Dallas with 11.
Texas is the only state placing two cities in the top five.
No California city ranks in the top five, which reflects how distributed the state's corporate base is across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego rather than concentrated in one metro.
Newcomers, Debuts, and the Biggest Movers
Twelve companies debuted on the 2026 Fortune 500. The most notable entries show how quickly the composition of the list is shifting.
| Company | 2026 rank | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy Digital | 76 | Digital assets |
| Medline | 159 | Healthcare supply |
| Amentum Holdings | 313 | Engineering services |
| Venture Global | 328 | LNG energy |
| Arista Networks | 444 | Networking hardware |
Source: Fortune
Carvana made the largest single jump on the list, climbing 94 places to No. 220 on 49% revenue growth.
Amphenol rose 89 spots and Super Micro Computer rose 84, both riding AI hardware demand.
The churn also cuts the other way. Walgreens Boots Alliance dropped off the list after being acquired by Sycamore Partners in August 2025, and Nordstrom exited in a take-private deal.
The 22 companies that departed collectively employed 659,640 people. Their 22 replacements employed fewer than half that, at 317,414 (source: Fortune).
Two of the newcomers employ fewer than 1,000 people each.
BitGo Holdings entered at No. 278 with 603 employees, and Galaxy Digital cracked the Fortune 100 at No. 76 with 700. The next smallest employer in the top 100 has nearly eight times as many workers.
Employment: Record Revenue, Fewer Workers
The single most important trend on the 2026 list is that headcount fell while every financial metric rose.
Fortune 500 employment declined 1% to 30.5 million, a loss of 301,049 workers and the second consecutive annual decline.
Since 1995, when Fortune first included service firms, headcount declines had only occurred during or after a recession.
| Employment metric | 2026 figure |
|---|---|
| Total headcount | 30.5 million, down 1% |
| Net workers lost | 301,049 |
| Revenue per employee | $687,094 |
| Profit per employee | $68,743 |
Source: Fortune
Both revenue per employee and profit per employee are all-time records.
Among companies that stayed on the list from 2025 to 2026, employment grew only 0.1%, which economists describe as a low-hire, low-fire labor market. Amazon added 20,000 employees, up 1.3%.
Walmart was flat. UnitedHealth Group shed 10,000, down 2.5%. By sector, retail headcount fell 0.9%, technology fell 1%, and financials grew 0.9%.
There were outliers on the upside. Dick's Sporting Goods increased headcount 83.1% after acquiring Foot Locker, and Carvana added 5,700 employees, up 32.8%.
For broader context on how this compares to hiring across the wider market, see these hiring statistics for 2026.
Salaries and CEO Pay Inside the Fortune 500
Compensation at this tier of company splits sharply between the executive suite and the median worker.
| Pay metric | 2025 figure |
|---|---|
| Average S&P 500 CEO pay (excluding Musk) | $22.8 million, up 21% |
| Median S&P 500 CEO pay | $17.3 million |
| Average CEO to worker ratio (excluding Musk) | 312 to 1 |
| Median company CEO to worker ratio | 198 to 1 |
Source: AFL-CIO
Average pay of $22.8 million is the highest level recorded in three decades of tracking, up from $18.9 million a year earlier.
Including Elon Musk's $158 billion Tesla package, the average rises to $340.1 million and the ratio to 5,387 to 1.
Median worker pay tells the other half of the story.
Amazon reported median employee compensation of $40,206 globally and $53,211 for US full-time staff, producing a CEO to worker ratio of 51 to 1, well below the S&P 500 norm (source: TheStreet).
Pay varies enormously by function and sector.
Engineering and AI roles at the top of the list command multiples of the median, a gap we quantify in our AI industry salary report and our roundup of the highest paying tech companies in 2026.
Broader wage benchmarks by career stage are covered in this analysis of average salary by age.
Women Leading Fortune 500 Companies
A record 55 Fortune 500 companies are led by women in 2026, or 11% of the list.
That is the highest share in the ranking's 72-year history and the fourth consecutive year above double digits (source: Fortune).
Elevance Health at No. 18 is the highest ranked woman-led company, under Gail Boudreaux since 2017.
Other notable leaders include Sarah London at Centene (No. 19), Mary Barra at General Motors (No. 23), Jane Fraser at Citigroup (No. 24), Carol Tomé at UPS (No. 48), Tricia Griffith at Progressive (No. 51), Phebe Novakovic at General Dynamics (No. 91), and Thasunda Brown Duckett at TIAA (No. 94).
The record came in a turbulent year that saw several high-profile departures, including Oracle's Safra Catz, Fannie Mae's Priscilla Almodovar, and Hershey's Michele Buck.
Almodovar's exit left the Fortune 500 without a Latina CEO for the first time since 2022.
Fortune 500 vs Fortune Global 500
The two lists are frequently confused. The Fortune 500 covers US companies only. The Fortune Global 500 covers the largest companies worldwide.
| Measure | Fortune 500 (2026) | Fortune Global 500 (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Combined revenue | $21.0 trillion | $43.1 trillion |
| Combined profit | $2.1 trillion | $3.4 trillion |
| Employees | 30.5 million | 70.2 million |
| Women CEOs | 55 (11%) | 34 (6.8%) |
| Entry threshold | $7.5 billion | Roughly $33 billion |
Sources: Fortune Media, Fortune
Amazon tops both lists in 2026.
US presence on the Global 500 reached 141 companies, its highest level since 2008, generating $15.5 trillion in aggregate revenue, up 6%.
Greater China ranked second with 122 companies, down eight year over year.
What the 2026 List Signals for the Year Ahead
Three signals stand out for anyone using the Fortune 500 as an economic indicator;
- Concentration is accelerating: Ten companies produce more than 20% of all Fortune 500 revenue, and on the global list the top 50 account for 33% of revenue and 39% of profit. Scale advantages are compounding rather than eroding.
- Scale no longer requires headcount: Two debut companies employ fewer than 1,000 people. Revenue per employee hit a record $687,094. The link between corporate size and job creation is weakening, which changes what a Fortune 500 entry actually means for a local economy.
- The composition is turning over faster: Twelve debuts, 22 exits, and rank jumps of 84 to 94 places among incumbents point to a more volatile list than the term "blue chip" implies.
Several of today's entrants were private growth companies a few years ago, a pipeline we track in our reports on the fastest growing companies in the US and the biggest startups in the US.
Wider formation data is available in these startup statistics for 2026.
Conclusion
BestFirms exists to turn dense corporate datasets into decisions that buyers, operators, and job seekers can actually use.
The 2026 Fortune 500 records a US corporate sector that is larger and more profitable than at any point in its history, with $21.0 trillion in revenue, $2.1 trillion in profit, and $55 trillion in market value, yet employing 301,049 fewer people than a year earlier.
Amazon's arrival at No. 1 after 13 years of Walmart dominance, Texas overtaking California on headquarters count, a record 55 women CEOs, and the entry of sub-1,000-employee firms into the Fortune 100 all point in the same direction.
The list still measures scale, but scale now means something different than it did even five years ago.
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FAQs
1. What is the Fortune 500 companies list?
The Fortune 500 companies list is an annual ranking of the 500 largest US corporations by total revenue for their most recent fiscal year, published by Fortune magazine since 1955.
2. Which company is No. 1 on the 2026 Fortune 500 list?
The company at No. 1 on the 2026 Fortune 500 list is Amazon, with more than $715 billion in 2025 revenue, ending Walmart's 13-year run at the top.
3. How much revenue do you need to make the Fortune 500 in 2026?
The revenue needed to make the Fortune 500 in 2026 is $7.5 billion in annual revenue, a threshold that rose 5% from the previous year's cutoff.
4. Which state has the most Fortune 500 companies in 2026?
The state with the most Fortune 500 companies in 2026 is Texas, with 57 headquarters and $2.8 trillion in combined revenue, ahead of California's 56.
5. How many Fortune 500 companies are led by women in 2026?
The number of Fortune 500 companies led by women in 2026 is 55, or 11% of the list, the highest share in the ranking's 72-year history.
Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or compliance advice. Protocol versions, governance arrangements, and partner counts cited here reflect publicly announced milestones as of August 2026 and are moving quickly. Adoption figures come from vendor and foundation announcements with differing methodologies and should be treated as directional signals rather than guaranteed outcomes.