The 2025 Fortune 500 is here—and the story’s just getting started. From AI breakthroughs and DEI rollbacks to leadership exits and return-to-office showdowns, this year’s business landscape is shifting fast. We’ve published the list. Now we’re tracking the moves. |
Subscribe now to access the list, the profiles, and the reporting that follows what’s next.
|
|
|
|
|
Alyson Shontell
|
|
Editor-in-Chief
|
|
|
Good morning! A few thoughts on the big news this week:
|
Elon vs. Trump: What does the fallout mean for investors—and for America? While lots of Twitter users grabbed popcorn to watch the two most powerful men in the country trade blows on Thursday, the significance of their fallout is no joke. For Tesla (No. 43) shareholders, tens of billions in market value evaporated during the fight (for more on what it means for Tesla investors, read Fortune’s Shawn Tully here). |
But more importantly, will their frayed relationship have an impact on U.S. competitiveness in the global AI race? Having just returned from a trip to Asia where technologists, executives, and world leaders from China, the Middle East, and ASEAN nations gathered, it's clear to me that the U.S. is lagging on a number of important technological fronts, including EVs and renewable energy, while it's just barely ahead if at all in robotics and large language models (LLMs) for generative AI. |
Feel what you want about Musk, but he and his companies represent the U.S.’s best shot at staying competitive in these important sectors. If the Trump administration now actively tries to block him from prevailing, I don't think anyone in the U.S. wins. As All In podcast host and Ohalo Genetics founder David Friedberg lamented while the president and the world’s richest man traded barbs: “China just won.” |
In other news: The 2025 Fortune 500 went live earlier this week. It's our 71st edition of the list, which ranks the largest businesses in the U.S. by revenue. A few notable trends stood out from the data: |
-
The 500 companies represent two-thirds of U.S. GDP with $19.9 trillion in revenues—making them among the biggest driving forces in the world’s biggest economy.
-
They employ 31 million people worldwide.
-
Last year, the group earned $1.87 trillion in profits, up 10% from 2023, a record in dollar terms; tech and finance blew away other industries in terms of profitability.
-
Alphabet (No. 7), parent of Google, became the first U.S. company in history to clock $100 billion in profit in a single year.
-
The health care industry continued to dominate. UnitedHealth Group moved up one slot to No. 3 and topped $400 billion in revenue for the first time; and Oscar Health, founded less than a decade ago, debuted on the list at No. 437. Eight of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies are in the health care sector.
-
This might be the last year of stable rankings. Not priced into this year’s list: Tariff uncertainty amid a looming trade war, health care domination blowback and potential impending regulation, and the continuing impact of AI on company efficiencies.
|
Explore the full 2025 list here—and watch this space for news that could shake up next year’s rankings. |
|
|
|
