Amazon passed Walmart to become the world's largest company by revenue in Fortune's 2026 Global 500, published on July 28. Amazon reported $716.9 billion for fiscal 2025 and Walmart $713.2 billion, a gap of $3.7 billion.
Revenue measures scale, not strength. Walmart kept about $3 of every $100 in revenue as profit. Alphabet kept $32.80. The ten largest companies show how different the same headline size can look once profit and market value are added.
The top 10 by revenue
| Rank | Company | Revenue ($B) | Profit ($B) | Profit per $100 of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon | 716.9 | 78 | $10.80 |
| 2 | Walmart | 713.2 | 22 | $3.10 |
| 3 | State Grid | 555.4 | 11 | $2.00 |
| 4 | UnitedHealth Group | 447.6 | 12 | $2.70 |
| 5 | Saudi Aramco | 445.5 | 93 | $20.80 |
| 6 | Apple | 416.2 | 112 | $26.90 |
| 7 | McKesson | 403.4 | 5 | $1.20 |
| 8 | Alphabet | 402.8 | 132 | $32.80 |
| 9 | CVS Health | 402.1 | 2 | $0.40 |
| 10 | China National Petroleum | 401.9 | 21 | $5.30 |
Source: Fortune Global 500 2026, as compiled by Visual Capitalist. Profit is after tax and rounded.
Scale is not profit
By my calculation from these figures, the ten companies generated about $4.9 trillion in revenue. That is roughly 11% of the $43.1 trillion earned by the whole Global 500. Their combined profit of about $488 billion is roughly 14% of the list's record $3.39 trillion.
Profit is far more uneven than revenue. Alphabet, at $132 billion, was the most profitable company on the entire list, ending Saudi Aramco's four-year run at the top, BigGo Finance reported. Apple earned $112 billion, Aramco $93 billion and Amazon $78 billion. CVS Health, with $402.1 billion in revenue, earned about $2 billion.
Business models explain much of the gap. Software and digital platforms can serve extra customers at low additional cost, Visual Capitalist noted, while retailers and energy companies must keep paying for inventory, labor and raw materials. Three health care companies sit in the top 10, UnitedHealth Group, McKesson and CVS Health, with margins between 0.4% and 2.7%.
Amazon sits in the middle, at $10.80 per $100. Fortune's editor in chief noted a $200 billion capital commitment this year, largely for AI and cloud capacity. Visual Capitalist said spending on that scale could reshape Big Tech margins.
Market power at the top
Concentration is rising. The top 50 companies on the list produced 33% of total revenue and 39% of total profit, and the top 100 produced 47% and 53%, according to Fortune data reported by BigGo Finance. Fortune said the "Magnificent Seven" generated $2.3 trillion in revenue and $608 billion in profit in 2025.
Stock markets rank the giants differently. In mid-October, market-value trackers put Nvidia between $5.3 trillion and $5.65 trillion, Apple at about $4.9 to $5.0 trillion, Alphabet at $4.1 to $4.25 trillion and Amazon near $2.7 trillion. Figures vary by source and day.
Nvidia is not in the revenue top 10. Its $215.9 billion in revenue ranks 28th, but its $120 billion profit was second only to Alphabet's. Investors pay for expected future earnings, which is consistent with Amazon's market value trailing Apple's and Alphabet's despite higher sales.
Not all giants are the same kind of company
Three of the top 10 are energy and utility groups with state links: State Grid, Saudi Aramco and China National Petroleum. State Grid's $555.4 billion in revenue is the highest of any non-US company, Visual Capitalist said. Seven of the top 10 are American.
Their margins differ sharply. State Grid earned $11 billion on its revenue, Aramco $93 billion and China National Petroleum $21 billion.
How to read the ranking
Fortune ranks by revenue alone. Revenue also means different things for a retailer, a health insurer and a drug distributor, so comparisons across sectors need care.
Fiscal years differ, though revenues are for years ending on or before March 2026, according to Visual Capitalist. Market value applies only to listed companies, and State Grid is not publicly traded. Profit figures are rounded to the nearest billion.
What the comparison shows
Revenue shows how much money flows through a company. Profit shows what it keeps. Market value shows what investors expect it to keep later.
Amazon leads on revenue, Alphabet on profit and Nvidia on market value. No single measure captures a company's influence on the global economy, but the three together give a fuller picture.
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