Amazon placed No. 1 on the Fortune 500 ranking on Wednesday, overtaking Walmart’s 13-year streak as the highest-earning U.S. company.The online retailing giant surpassed $700 billion in revenue last year, with a 12% year-over-year increase, according to the annual list that ranks America’s 500 largest companies by total revenue for the previous fiscal year.Amazon’s two-decade rise to the top of the Fortune 500 is the result of a dramatic shift in consumer preferences due to technological change. The company’s dethroning of the big-box store giant is the first time Walmart has fallen out of first place since 2012, when it was second to energy and gas company Exxon Mobil.
Meanwhile, Alphabet, Google’s massive parent company and conglomerate, stood as Fortune’s “most profitable company,” with $132 billion in earnings. Rounding out the top 10 are UnitedHealth Group, Apple, Alphabet, CVS Health, Berkshire Hathaway, McKesson, Exxon, and Cencora.
The total of Fortune 500 companies covers two-thirds of the U.S. GDP, “with $21.0 trillion (up 5%) in revenues, $2.1 trillion (up 12%) in profits, and $55 trillion (up 19%) in market value, while employing 30.5 million people worldwide.” This year’s required revenue threshold to make the top 500 was $7.5 billion, an increase of 5% from last year.
