On July 28, the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list was released: Amazon became the world’s largest company, ending Walmart’s twelve-year reign at the top; Walmart ranked second; China’s State Grid Corporation continued to rank third; UnitedHealth Group and Saudi Aramco placed fourth and fifth, respectively.

Total revenue of this year’s Fortune Global 500 companies reached approximately $43.1 trillion, exceeding one-third of global GDP and growing about 3.2% year-on-year. Both total assets and net assets of the 500 listed companies hit record highs since the list began, and the total number of employees increased compared with last year.

Image source: Fortune official WeChat account

In 2025, the 500 companies’ overall profits kept rising, reaching an all-time high of about $3.4 trillion. Google parent Alphabet posted a profit of $132.17 billion last year, up roughly 32% year-on-year, seizing the title of “world’s most profitable company” from Saudi Aramco. Nvidia ranked second in profits, with earnings growing about 64.8%. Apple ranked third, and Amazon came in sixth.

Including enterprises from the Taiwan region, a total of 122 Chinese companies made the list this year, 8 fewer than last year, ranking second only to the United States. The combined 2025 revenue of these 122 Chinese companies stood at about $10.4 trillion.

Among the 116 companies from the Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong), apart from one new entrant and four whose rankings stayed the same, 45 moved up and 66 moved down. Five Chinese internet giants—JD.com, Alibaba, Tencent, PDD Holdings and Meituan—achieved sustained growth amid the competition, and all improved their rankings.

Of those five, JD.com rose 3 spots from last year to rank 41st, remaining the highest-ranked private company from the Chinese mainland. Alibaba climbed 7 spots to 56th. Tencent was the only one to post year-on-year net profit growth. This year, Tencent entered the top 100 for the first time, jumping 19 spots to 97th. PDD Holdings advanced 11 spots to 255th, and Meituan moved up 16 spots to 311th.

Source: E-commerce Pai