Big numbers are kind of deceptive. You see a headline saying Walmart made over $680 billion last year and your brain just sort of shorts out. How do you even visualize that much money? It’s basically the entire GDP of some medium-sized countries just flowing through one Arkansas-based retailer.
But here is the thing: being at the top of the Fortune 500 companies by revenue list doesn't actually mean you're the "best" or even the most successful. It just means you are the biggest. There's a massive difference between moving a ton of cash and actually keeping it.
The Revenue vs. Profit Trap
Honestly, most people conflate revenue with "wealth." It’s a total mistake. Revenue is the total amount of money coming in the door. If you sell a dollar for 99 cents, you'll have world-class revenue, but you’ll be bankrupt by lunchtime.
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Take a look at the 2025 rankings. Walmart has held that #1 spot for 13 years straight. In the 2025 list (which tracks the 2024 fiscal year), they hit roughly $681 billion. That is a staggering amount of groceries and lawn chairs. But if you look at their profits? About $19 billion.
Compare that to Apple, which sits at #4 on the revenue list with $391 billion. Apple made way less revenue than Walmart, but their profit was nearly $94 billion.
- Walmart: Massive scale, razor-thin margins.
- Apple: High scale, "I can't believe they charge this much" margins.
- UnitedHealth Group: The healthcare giant that quietly sneaked into the #3 spot with $400 billion, proving that health insurance is basically a license to print money.
It’s a weird ecosystem. You have companies like Amazon (#2) breathing down Walmart's neck with $638 billion in revenue, but their business model is so diversified now that comparing them to a traditional retailer is almost impossible.
The 2025 Heavy Hitters: A Closer Look
The threshold to even get on this list has become ridiculous. You now need at least $7.4 billion in annual revenue just to be #500. A few decades ago, that would have put you near the top.
The Top 10 Breakdown
- Walmart: $680.9B
- Amazon: $637.9B
- UnitedHealth Group: $400.2B
- Apple: $391.0B
- CVS Health: $372.8B
- Berkshire Hathaway: $371.4B
- Alphabet (Google): $350.0B
- Exxon Mobil: $344.5B
- McKesson: $308.9B
- Cencora: $262.1B
Notice anything? Healthcare is everywhere. UnitedHealth, CVS, McKesson, and Cencora take up 40% of the top ten. We talk about Big Tech all the time, but Big Pharma and Big Insurance are the ones actually dominating the raw revenue game.
Then you have Nvidia. Oh man, Nvidia.
They didn't make the top ten, but they are the story of the year. They jumped dozens of spots to land at #31 because their revenue skyrocketed by 114% in a single year, hitting $130.5 billion. That kind of vertical movement for a company that size is basically unheard of. It's all AI. Every single data center on the planet is screaming for their H100 chips.
Why the "500" List Actually Changes
It feels like these giants are permanent. They aren't.
Since the list started in 1955, only about 10% of the original companies are still there. The world used to be about steel and oil. Now it's about data and health.
Companies drop off for the weirdest reasons. Sometimes it's a merger—like when GE split itself into three different companies (GE HealthCare, GE Aerospace, and GE Vernova). Suddenly, the "General Electric" we knew is gone, replaced by smaller (but still huge) pieces.
Other times, the market just moves on. Albemarle Corp fell off the 2025 list because lithium prices crashed. One year you're the king of EV battery materials, the next year you're not even in the top 500. It's brutal.
What This Means for You
If you are an investor or just a business nerd, looking at Fortune 500 companies by revenue is a great way to see where the money is moving, but not necessarily where it's staying.
Real-World Takeaways
- Watch the Middle: The companies ranked 100-300 are often more interesting than the top 10. That's where the high-growth disruptors live before they get "fat" and slow.
- Geography is Shifting: Texas and California are in a legitimate war for headquarters. California still has the most (58), but Texas is right behind them with 54.
- The CEO Gap: We hit a record in 2025 with 55 women CEOs on the list. It’s progress, but it's still only 11%.
If you want to use this data for your own career or investment strategy, don't just look at the rank. Look at the Revenue per Employee.
A company like Valero Energy might have massive revenue but relatively few employees compared to Walmart. That tells you about their efficiency and how much "weight" each worker carries.
Next Steps for Deeper Insight
- Analyze Margin, Not Just Sales: Go to the Fortune 500 official database and sort by profits instead of revenue. You’ll see a completely different list of winners.
- Track the "Newbies": Look at the 14 new companies that joined in 2025, like Kenvue and Palo Alto Networks. These are the industries currently siphoning value from the old guard.
- Sector Comparison: Compare the total revenue of the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks against the traditional energy sector. You'll find that tech is increasingly becoming the infrastructure that the rest of the 493 companies rely on to function.
Success in business isn't about hitting #1 on a list. It's about surviving long enough to see the list change.