Walmart secures 1st spot on ‘Fortune 500’ list as Amazon closes the gap in 2nd

The American multinational business magazine, Fortune, released a new Fortune Global 500 list for 2022 on August 3. The list ranks the largest corporations in the world by revenue for fiscal 2021, with Walmart (NYSE: WMT) topping the list yet again, nine years in a row. 

Other notable mentions in the top 10 include: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) rising to second, China’s State Grid Corporation of China ranked third, PetroChina and Sinopec ranked fourth and fifth respectively; while Volkswagen overtook Toyota to regain the title of ‘world’s largest automaker’ with the now eighth spot on the list.

Interestingly, just in the last year, Amazon leaped from ninth to third place on the list, while its market cap is that of Walmart and Alibaba combined. Now, it’s in the second spot, indicating how well the online e-commerce giant performed and benefited from the pandemic developments.

Operating income increase

Furthermore, the operating income data of the Fortune Global 500 indicates that this year these 500 companies had an income of $37.8 trillion, the highest increase in the history of the list of 19.2% compared to the previous year. This cumulative operating income represents one-fifth of the global GDP for 2021. 

Also, this record year increased the threshold for entry on the list, consisting of minimum sales revenue, from the previous $24 billion to now $28.6 billion. 

Saudi Aramco topped the chart by earnings with about $105.4 billion in revenues. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) took second place, with a profit of over $94.6 billion, while Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) was in third place, with around $89.8 billion in earnings.

Summing it all up

While the companies on the list employ 69.6 million people worldwide and span across 33 countries, the numbers given reflect the previous year, while this year brought about a new set of challenges, as Fortune’s Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell wrote in a foreword to the magazine’s August/September 2022 issue. 

“Here’s the catch: [These] numbers reflect financials from 2021 when the world was starting to bounce back from COVID-19. This year has brought a whole new truckload of challenges… For businesses of every size, the real test will be who can survive and thrive in tough conditions like these, especially if—or when—a recession of unknown length and depth settles in.”

The challenges that 2022 brought with it will undoubtedly be difficult to overcome, but the companies on this list represent the best on the planet, and there is a chance that they will come out of this year more robust than before. 

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