A NOTE FROM OUR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ALYSON SHONTELL

Health care giants UnitedHealth Group (No. 5) and CVS Health (No. 6) nabbed two of the top 10 spots, demonstrating just how fast the health care industry is growing. Over about the last three decades, the sector went from the 13th largest in the Fortune 500 to the second.

And despite a tough year for tech, four of the industry’s giants—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta—earned a total of $255.7 billion in profits, or more than 16% of the total earnings of the Fortune 500. Still, that’s down from their $271.3 billion in combined profits the year prior.

To make it onto the Fortune 500, companies needed revenues north of $7.2 billion. That threshold is up 13% from last year’s list. The top 50 on the list make up nearly half of all revenue generated by the Fortune 500, a result of increased consolidation across sectors.

This year’s list also featured the most companies led by women and Black CEOs ever. But as I covered two weeks ago in The Reader, progress has been slow.

You can find more Fortune 500 highlights and coverage below. And if you want to go even deeper, you can find the full set of Fortune 500 data we used to compile the list here.

JUNE 5, 2023

FORTUNE 500

Motorola ditched cell phones and found a lucrative second act. Now it’s one of tech’s biggest turnaround stories

The company now makes most of its money from security tech—and it’s one of tech’s biggest turnaround stories.

Have we reached peak Tesla?

The carmaker’s market share, profits, and stock have been declining, and Elon Musk is looking for his next moonshot.

How the ‘Amazon of Asia,’ founded by a Harvard Business School dropout, landed on the Fortune 500 for the first time

Newly profitable Coupang, which serves customers in South Korea and Taiwan, joins the Fortune 500 list at No. 195.

How Lululemon took on Nike to become a Fortune 500 company and $8 billion athleisure empire

The athleisure brand saw sales rise 24% last quarter even as rivals’ cratered.

FEATURES

Nicola Mendelsohn battled an incurable cancer on her way to becoming a top Meta exec. Now she’s trying to solve the Facebook parent’s growth crisis

The head of Meta’s global business group was promoted amid Meta’s “efficiency” layoffs, its first year-over-year drop in revenue, and a grim economy for advertisers. Can she turn things around?

Is Google a bad neighbor? A fight over water use at a huge data center is exposing deeper issues in an Oregon town

Google’s tax dollars and jobs have boosted The Dalles. But the company’s insistence on secrecy is making residents uneasy.

The Supreme Court could strike down a key civil rights era ‘pathway to achieve the American Dream.’ What follows affirmative action?

As the Supreme Court ponders how educational institutions should use race in their admissions decisions, it’s worth thinking about what it did and didn’t accomplish—and what comes next.

Chipmaker TSMC needs to hire 4,500 Americans at its new Arizona plants. Its ‘brutal’ corporate culture is getting in the way

The chip giant says its Arizona hiring is on schedule, but recruiters say the company is a hard sell.

LIFESTYLE

What’s gone wrong for the studio behind ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’—and how Disney’s Bob Iger can salvage his $4 billion investment

Lucasfilm just premiered the fifth installment in its Indiana Jones franchise and a lot is riding on the fedora-sporting, bullwhip-toting archeologist.

FINANCE

This city dodged the 2008 housing market crash—now it’s the epicenter of the pandemic correction

Austin is arguably the epicenter of both the Pandemic Housing Boom and the Pandemic Housing Correction.

The future of American crypto looks bleak as Gary Gensler declares war—and it could mean the end of Coinbase in the U.S.

The SEC chair’s crusade against Coinbase and savvy politicking could mean the end of crypto companies in the U.S.

HEALTH

New York City’s air pollution is among the world’s worst—and similar crises are becoming more common. Here’s how to be prepared for the next one

How to avoid those scratchy, watery eyes and difficulty breathing when air quality drops.

Access the ultimate benchmark of business success and gain unparalleled insight into which companies are winning and why.

Explore the 500.