Walmart retains global crown

Melody Chen

Walmart remains the world's largest company in the world in terms of revenue in 2023, according to the 2024 Fortune Global 500 rankings, while Saudi Aramco is the most profitable firm.

Walmart was crowned for the 11th consecutive year, followed by Amazon and State Grid Corporation of China.

Saudi Aramco and Sinopec (0386) came fourth and fifth, respectively.

The total revenue of the 500 companies amounted to around US$41 trillion (HK$319.8 trillion), about a third of the global gross domestic product.

The rankings of major Chinese internet firms were generally higher except for Alibaba (9988), which slipped two places.

JD.com (9618) at 47th was the largest private company in the mainland. Meituan (3690) jumped 83 spots to 384th, making it the Chinese company with the most significant rank increase. Nasdaq-listed Pinduoduo made the list for the first time.

A total of 10 Chinese automobile and auto parts companies were included in the list. BYD (1211) climbed 69 spots and Geely Automobile (0175) rose 40 places.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398), China Construction Bank (0939), and Agricultural Bank of China (1288) made it into the top 10 of the profit rankings, with ICBC's profit exceeding US$51.4 billion.