The corporations on our annual list posted aggregate revenues of $41 trillion for the second year in a row.

Fortune Global 500

The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies delivered a record $41 trillion in aggregate revenues.

G500-2023-Saudi Aramco

The state-owned oil behemoth jumped up four spots from our previous year’s list, increasing its revenue by 51%. It raked in about $159 billion in profits in 2022, the largest earnings grab among any of the firms in the Global 500—and the most profitable year in history for a publicly traded company. 
<ul> 
 	<li>Saudi Aramco, like all large-scale fossil fuel producers, saw its revenue rise as oil supply tightened in 2022, partly because of the war in Ukraine. OPEC oil prices rose to a high of about $122 a barrel in June 2022; they had fallen to about $80 by July 2023.</li> 
 	<li>In October 2022, the oil giant unveiled a $1.5 billion sustainability fund as well as plans to build a carbon-capture-and-storage facility.</li> 
 	<li>Despite activist outcry over the environmental impact of oil and gas consumption, Aramco continues to invest the majority of its profits in fossil fuel production. As of December 2022, it produced 12 million barrels of crude oil a day; it has said it plans to increase production capacity to 13 million barrels a day by 2027.</li> 
</ul>

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

G500 2022-06-Saudi Aramaco

State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco doubled its profits in 2021 from the year prior as oil prices skyrocketed to keep up with demand from the post-COVID travel boom; its $105.4 billion in profits were the highest of any company in the Global 500. Oil prices climbed even further in early 2022—at one point hitting $110 per barrel—following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The surge briefly made Saudi Aramco the world’s most valuable company, ahead of Apple, and the oil giant’s market cap remained well above $2 trillion in mid-2022. The energy crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict has given the company fresh incentive to pump more oil in coming years despite government and corporate pledges to reduce reliance on fossil fuel; Saudi Aramco has said it wants to reach 13 million barrels a day by 2027.

Total revenue for the world’s biggest companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year—the first decline in half a decade.

G500-2021-014-Saudi Aramco

In December 2019, the Saudi royal family’s crown jewel made its much-awaited stock market debut in a record-setting public offering. Year one as a publicly traded stock provided plenty of drama: a pandemic-led oil crash; a deepening rift between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which pushed oil prices even lower; and OPEC production cuts. The still-massive $49 billion in profit that Saudi Aramco reported was roughly 45% lower than a year earlier. The company slashed operating costs in 2020 while its debt jumped, partly to maintain its sacred dividend. A rebound in oil prices has begun to boost Saudi Aramco’s performance: For the first quarter of 2021, the company reported net income of $21.7 billion, or a 30% gain over the same period for the previous year.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits.

G500-2020-006-Saudi-Aramco

In December 2019, Saudi Aramco made its much-anticipated debut on the Saudi Stock Exchange, becoming the world’s largest initial public offering on record. It reached a market capitalization of $2 trillion just days after its listing. The company’s landmark IPO showcased what many have long suspected: Aramco, the most profitable company in the world, netted $88 billion in total profits last year. In 2020, the company has reckoned with an oil crash amid the pandemic, but rising demand in China and hopes of a limited second wave of the pandemic had Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser believing in June that “the worst" is behind the company.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

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Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Saudi Aramco got its start in the 1930s when Standard Oil of California found large petroleum deposits while conducting operations at the behest of the government of Saudi Arabia. Today, the company is run and largely owned by the Saudi government and is at the top or near the top of the list of global energy firms when it comes to daily oil output, proven reserves, and global revenue. Headquartered in Dhahran, Aramco conducted an IPO in 2019 that it saw it make a small percentage of its shares available for purchase to the public.

Saudi Aramco Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

Saudi Aramco

saudi aramco

Saudi Aramco got its start in the 1930s when Standard Oil of California found large petroleum deposits while conducting operations at the behest of the government of Saudi Arabia. Today, the company is run and largely owned by the Saudi government and is at the top or near the top of the list of global energy firms when it comes to daily oil output, proven reserves, and global revenue. Headquartered in Dhahran, Aramco conducted an IPO in 2019 that it saw it make a small percentage of its shares available for purchase to the public.

Saudi Aramco Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

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This year’s list tells a story of inflation and global tensions.

An in-depth look at the 2023 Fortune Global 500

Illustration by Chris DeLorenzo for Fortune

Franchise_Lists

The global 500 ranks the largest companies in the world by revenue. The smallest company on this year's list has about $31 billion in revenue. In contrast, the smallest company in the US 500 this year has about $7 billion in revenue. While the world is getting more fragmented in ways, the risks are getting more connected and correlated. So I think the challenge is resiliency. Mortgage rates rose more than 3%. Home prices rose by 8% that impacts affordability for home ownership. The economics of every geography are slightly different but there is definitely a commonality around inflation and general uncertainty. 2022 really stood out for um expectations that we were going to have a recession. There was also an increase in focus on us. China tensions. A lot of talk about decoupling and a big transformation to the global commodity market with a real redirection of commodity exports as Russia directed more of its exports east and south. And we saw that Europe did a pivot to the west and away from Russia. Inflation was starting to rise before Russia invaded Ukraine, but that invasion affected the world's oil and food supplies and drove prices up for that. The conventional wisdom is that inflation hurts corporate profits. The profits of the global 500 were down slightly from last year, but collectively they still earned almost $3 trillion in profits, which is the second highest total ever. Number one is Walmart. It is their 10th consecutive year. At number one. Number two is Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian national crude oil producer. Number three is state grid which is China's big National Electric Utility. Number four is Amazon and number five is China National Petroleum. The story that the US 500 tells has recently been very much a story about the huge domination of big tech, all of these companies building tech expertise into huge businesses. And of course, that's an important global story. But the Global 500 reminds you that the rise of big tech is just one story. All those companies are still there. But you also look down the list and you're seeing huge European and Chinese oil companies, big global auto manufacturers like Volkswagen and Toyota. And it reminds you how much of the global workforce and how much global capital is still tied up in laboring in these dominant industries of the 20th century. All of these companies are trying to transition into a 21st century economy that might be greener and higher tech, but they're not there yet. And this list kind of proves that we need a holistic policy that the into consideration, energy reliability, affordability and energy security, oil and gas will continue to be part of the energy mix for decades. Oil prices surged in 2022. And as a result, Saudi Aramco's revenue was up about 50% over two 1021. So they were just within about $8 billion of catching Wal Mart, which in terms of companies this big, that's like a rounding error came really, really close. They also had the most profitable year that any global 500 company has ever had. They earned 159 billion with a B dollars in profits. There are more companies from greater China than there are from the US. But the US companies on the global 500 collectively brought in quite a bit more revenue than the ones from greater China. We are a long way, a long, long way from being anywhere close to the kind of representation in leadership, whether that's of companies or governments or institutions that better represents the societies that we serve. May today, close to 60% of our employee base are people of color as a Latina myself. I'm passionate about diversity inclusion, equal opportunity. First of all, it's good for business, it responds to changes we're seeing in demographics and it honors our mission. I think that in 2023 the market is still waiting to see this recession because of the magnitude of rate hikes that we've seen across central banks and what kind of slowdown will it be? Is a soft landing possible? Is it going to be a mild recession or is there a risk that the longer this is delayed, that you could have a synchronized global downturn? We have yet to see a resolution of Russia's war on Ukraine. We've seen permanent shifts into the commodity markets, but we'll continue to see that trade patterns, you know, investment flows, supply chain resilience, reducing dependencies remain very much in the narrative. And I think you will see that the global South, the emerging market countries are going to play a bigger role. Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Indonesia. Economic growth in 2023 is predicted to grow in the 4.5 up to 5.3% we believe will grow due to the potential increase of domestic economy ahead. And I think when it comes to, to Russia, when it comes to the pandemic, um it's a climate change and to those challenges that are part of the agenda for us. Uh leaders of our generation, I think we we were not trained for any of those. And these past few years of pandemic geopolitical crisis, supply chain disruption, climate change and inflationary pressures mark the dawn of a new era which I call multipolar. This new multi polar world requires companies to become better, to become ever more agile and to constantly transform and adapt. I don't know what the future is going to look like. But what we've learned as Walmart through the last few years, in particular is staying agile, staying nimble, having data, really thinking about how we use that is critical. You need to adapt much faster, you no longer have time to learn everything you need to learn as much as you can and then act.

Saudi Aramco Launches the World’s Largest IPO

Energy

It’s also now the world’s most valuable company.

It was suppose to be the biggest public offering of all time, finally giving global investors a chance to make money on Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves. But now because of a mix of geopolitics and royal intrigue, the IPO of Saudi Aramco the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and by far the biggest energy company in the world may be the IPO that never. But we're getting ahead of ourselves let's go back to April 25th 2016. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] This is deputy crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman. In April 2016, he unveiled his plan for the economic future of Saudi Arabia vision 2030. And while there's a lot that the country hopes to accomplish by 2030 most of these hopes yield on the country putting five percent of Saudi Aramco on the public market. That's right. When we said the IPO would be the largest in history, that's only with the company putting 5 % of itself up for sale. Wall Street analysts estimate Aramco's total market value is somewhere between 1 trillion and $ 1. 5 trillion. And 5 % of that would really help the country's economic outlook. [ MUSIC ] The crashing crude oil prices that started in 2013 has taken a toll on Saudi Arabia. Oil accounts for roughly 97 % of the country's export earnings. The sale of 5 % of Saudi [ UNKNOWN ] would offer a quick injection of revenue for the government to help diversify the economy. Right now, the country's economic future is entwined with oils. Vision 2030 is an attempt to change that But the IPO fought an uphill battle from the start. Saudi Aramco currently only has just one stakeholder, the Saudi king. Until now, the companies assets have been a black box and many suggest that the identification of a market value is not in the royals best interest. Saudi Arabia has maintained for decades that it has 260. 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves. But that number has never fluctuated, any changes would impact the valuation and maybe not favorably. And then there are problems for potential share holders It could be risky to take on only a portion of a 5 % minority stake in a company largely reporting to the needs of the Saudi government. But it seems as though an alternative to the IPO has gained momentum. The Financial Times report that the oil mermaid maybe considering a private share sell instead. The buyers analyst best bet is China. And the deal makes sense. Saudi Aramco wouldn't need to publicly reveal anything. And China would have a new tap. Saudi Aramco, for its part, still insists the IPO process remains on track. But will letting in the light with an IPO really be worth it? [ MUSIC ]

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Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest energy company, is headed for an IPO. But will the plan go off without a hitch?

Saudi Aramco

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