Walmart Again Tops Fortune 500; Women Make Strides As CEOs

May 03, 2023

ACROSS AMERICA — For the 11th consecutive year, Walmart topped Fortune's list of the 500 biggest companies by revenue, and more women than ever are leading Fortune 500 companies, the magazine said Monday.

The corporations on the 69th edition of the Fortune 500 list had combined revenues of $18 trillion in fiscal year 2022 and account for two-thirds of the gross domestic product, Fortune said in a news release. Profits, down 15 percent, fell for the second time in the last three years.

For the first time in the list's history, more than 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. This year's list includes 52 Fortune 500 companies that are led by women, an all-time high, up from 44 last year.

The number of companies led by women in this year's Fortune 500 are a "slow, but real" sign of progress, Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontoll said in her foreword in the June/July issue of the magazine.

CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch continues to make Fortune 500 history at the helm of the highest-ranked company ever led by a female. CVS Health Ranked sixth overall.

"There are also more Black CEOs running Fortune 500s than ever before — but it's shameful to say that there are still only eight," Shontoll wrote.

The companies on the list are based in 224 cities in 38 states. For the second year, Texas leads with 55 Fortune 500 companies, followed by California with 53 companies, which bumped New York to No. 3 with 50 companies.

With 40 Fortune 500 companies based there, New York City is the top-ranked municipality, followed by Houston with 22 and Atlanta with 15.

The top 10 companies on the 2023 list are Walmart, Amazon.com, Exxon Mobil, Apple, UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Berkshire Hathaway, Alphabet, McKeeson and Chevron.

Walmart has taken in $5.7 trillion cumulative revenue in the 11 years it has topped the list that time. Amazon.com is at No. 2 for the fourth straight year with a 9 percent jump in revenue, eclipsing the $510 billion mark. At No. 3 with a 45 percent jump in revenue, Exxon Mobil bumped Apple to No. 4.

But with $99.8 billion in profits, Apple was the most profitable company on the list for the eighth time in nine years.

UnitedHealth Group is the highest-ranked health care company on the list at No. 5, followed by CVS Health at No. 6.