Amazon’s Current rank in the Fortune 500 list

Tech companies are all set to control the infrastructure of the digital economy in the current and future era. Amazon that has catapulted to No. 2 position on the Fortune 500 list this year; have seen a remarkable jump to $281 billion revenue and 21% revenue growth in 2019-20. It is now ranked just behind the world’s biggest retailer Walmart.

Rank History of Amazon in the Fortune 500 List

A decade ago in 2010, Amazon was not even in the Top 10 listing. In 2002, Amazon joined the wagon of Fortune listing at a rank of 492. It climbed up the ladder within the next eight years acquiring 100th position in 2010. In another decade’s timeframe; it rose up to the 2nd position this year in 2020. It is said that Amazon’s entertainment subscription and prime delivery service has added more than 150 million global customers in the recent past. Amazon’s profit as on March 31, 2020 has been $11,588 million with a market value of $970,680.1 million.

Jeff Bezos’ Wealth Accumulation

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, the founder of The Amazon.com Inc. has seen his net worth skyrocket by $63.6 billion this year. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff is now heading to another record of a fortune exceeding $200 billion and is on track to become the first trillionaire in the US by 2026. The world’s richest man’s wealth accumulation is unparalleled in speed and scale who is personally worth more than some of the US’ biggest companies like McDonald’s, Costco and Nike.

Rank History of Apple in the Fortune 500 List

The two technology giants Amazon and Apple contribute to around 20% revenue of the total top 10 listing.  Apple was in 123^rd position in 1995 and took a dip by hitting its bottom rank in Fortune’s list in 2002.  Since then, its revival efforts yielded them a giant leap of 104 ranks from 263^rd ranking in the year 2006 to 159^th position within a year’s span. Experts attribute the growth to its strong sales strategy of Macintosh Computers and iPod portable music. Today it proudly acquires the 4^th position and have come a long way from the year 2010’s 56^th position. Since last 7 consecutive years, Apple has maintained its position in the top 10 ranking.

However, in matters of highest profitability ranking, Berkshire Hathaway leads the way with $81 billion in the Fortune 500 listing. Apple follows the suit with $55 billion and Amazon is at $11.5 billion profit.

Key Facts about the Fortune 500 List

Together, the Fortune 500 firms represent more than $1.22 trillion in profits, $20.42 trillion in market value, and employ some 29.19 million people around the world. Though, Walmart is way ahead in its ranking at $524 billion revenues almost 1.86 times the revenue of Amazon. However, in terms of companies that investors are most excited about in market capitalization are again the three prime ones – Apple, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway. The market value of Apple is the highest for this year at $1,113 billion, Amazon at $971 billion and Berkshire Hathaway at $443 billion.

The Fortune list has always been a testament to the rise and fall of many large companies. Two decades ago, the tech behemoth IBM was on 6^th position and today it had not even landed in the top 10 Fortune’s list. General Electric Company is out of the top 10 race this year. From a steady 4^th and 5^th position since last two decades, it has come down to 33^rd number in 2020. The same is evidently highlighted with Hewlett-Packard which is out of the top 10 race and now places itself in 103^rd position. Even Ford that has slipped from 4^th ranking in 2000 to 8^th position after a decade in 2010; and now is out of the Top 10 list by securing 12th ranking.

Calling the Fortune 500 listing as the ultimate business scorecard, such exhilarating valuations are purely based on financial measures of sales, assets, earnings, capitalization, revenue and profit. This well established ranking has been a standard of performance for over 50 years and it will be interesting to see how Amazon and other technology companies will carve a new story to further bridge the gap in this race.