Which US Companies Made the Most Profit in 2025?
This week, our annual update of the companies which made the most money last year, on our chart which shows the changes since 1994. This chart is much more volatile than our charts on top revenue and top market capitalization companies. The Big Tech companies here are...
Most Valuable American Companies over 31 Years: 1995-2026
In this year’s annual update of our chart of the most valuable companies, see the absolute dominance of Big Tech at the top, a repeat of last year. For more comments and historical perspective, see last year’s article. Watch on Youtube here:...
Largest American Companies 1994-2025
Audio Version of this Post can be found here Errata: In the audio file and transcript, I said JPMorgan had 40 billion dollars in assets, but they have 4 trillion! As someone who has been studying this stuff for over 60 years, I still have trouble thinking in...
Giant Companies Rarely Survive
Originally published on Apr 1, 2021. A careful study of this week’s list will show you the huge American industries which once dominated stock markets, employment, and community life, but which are not as important in the age of Amazon and Google. Our readers know we...
Superwealth: A Historical Perspective
Originally published May 6, 2021 Few business subjects fascinate people as much as the very wealthy. Our obsession with celebrity goes back centuries but seems to have accelerated in recent decades. Forbes produced its first list of the richest Americans...
The World’s Largest Companies in 2024 … and in the Past
Five years ago, we took a look at the biggest companies in the world. Today we update that look with a few tables, based on the data provided in the annual Fortune magazine Global 500 lists. You can see the shift from a US-centered (and to some degree European)...
The Largest American Corporate Employers 1994-2024
Today we publish the last of our series of four annual animated charts on the top American public companies, focused on the largest employers. This list may seem to change more gradually than our prior lists based on revenues, stock market valuations, and...
Highest Profit American Companies: 1994-2024
In our last article, we presented a history and chart on the most valuable companies in America over the past three decades. In this issue, we take a look at another interesting measure, the twenty American companies that made the highest annual dollar profits...
Most Valuable American Companies over 30 Years: 1995-2025
In our last article, we presented a history and chart on the largest companies in America over the past three decades. In this issue, we take a look at another interesting measure, the twenty most valuable American companies over the same time span, based on the...
Largest American Companies over 30 Years: 1994-2024
In the paragraphs below, we take a visual tour of the evolution of the largest American companies over the past thirty years. We’ve posted updates of our annual charts of America’s biggest companies from the recently published Fortune 500. The first chart shows the...
Most Valuable American Companies 1995-2024
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies from the recently published Fortune 500. This chart shows the 20 US public companies with the largest market capitalizations from 1995 through 2024. You can pause and move to...
Largest American Employers 1994-2023
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies. This chart shows the 20 biggest employers among US public companies from 1994 through 2023. You can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. (There is also a...
Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2023
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies. This chart shows the 20 highest profit US public companies from 1994 through 2023. You can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. (There is also a video...
Largest US Companies 1994-2023
We’re delighted to present our annual update of our charts on the largest American companies, ranked by revenue, reflecting full year results for 2023. Here are two charts which you can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. One chart is the top...
America’s Largest Employers 1994-2022
Today we present our annual update of the twenty biggest employers among US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart above. Enjoy and share! Gary Hoover Executive Director American Business History...
America’s Most Valuable Companies 1995-2023
An updated 2024 version of this chart can be seen here. Today we present our annual update of the market capitalizations of the twenty most valuable US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart below, which you can control, or a video here....
Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2022
Here we present our annual update to our animated chart of the highest profit American companies, now extended to include results for 2022. You can pause them and move them to any year to see the lists of the top 20. We find studying them over and over very...
Largest US Companies 1994-2022
In this, our 161st newsletter, we present our annual update to our animated chart of the largest companies, now extended to include results for 2022. The picture above shows the leading companies when Fortune first did a list of all US companies for 1994 (previously...
Largest Employers 1994-2021
This week we present our animated chart of the largest employers in America among our big, public companies. In the last three weeks, we have published similar charts based on revenues, on profits, and on market capitalization, all of which can be found by clicking...
Most Valuable U.S. Companies 1995 Through 2022
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune...
Highest Profit US Companies 1994 Through 2021
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. (Our original post listed this as the 25 highest profit companies but should have said 20 highest profit companies.) Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies,...
2022 UPDATED Largest Companies Charts
Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune magazine “Fortune 500” list of the biggest public companies...
U.S. States Population Animated Chart 1790-2020
This week we present another of our popular animated charts. In this one, we show the populations of the states of the United States from the Census, every ten years from 1790 through 2020. The list is long, including all fifty ultimate states. The data...
America’s Largest Airlines 1950-2019 in Two Animated Charts
The United States airline system, one of the technological and business wonders of the twentieth century, evolved in the 1920s and 1930s. With early subsidies from the Post Office for carrying mail, airplanes began connecting US cities. With successive air...
Americans Vote with Their Feet
Last week, the Census Bureau published their annual estimates of population, as of July 1, 2020. Population trends underly all economic activity, so we study that data as soon as it is released. The fastest growing and shrinking cities and metropolitan areas...
Bye Bye, New York
One of the most significant shifts in American business over the last several decades has been the shrinking number of big corporations headquartered in New York City. At first, some moved “upstate” to the New York suburbs and to Connecticut. But more...
Retailing Trends 1992 through 2020
The $6.3 trillion US retailing industry has evolved continuously since the end of the Civil War, when the first chain grocery stores and first department stores began to develop. This chart, based on data from the US Census, shows how the different types of...
The Biggest Companies in the World
Fifty-seven years ago, meatpacking giant Swift was the 15th largest public company in the world. Today that 15th spot is held by American health insurer UnitedHealth. Apple sits in the 12th position formerly held by Texaco, now part of Chevron. ...
Most Valuable Companies: The Last 25 Years
An updated 2024 version of this chart can be seen here. On Market Capitalization as a Measure of Size or Success Your history reporter has been studying big business for fifty-seven years (I started subscribing to Fortune magazine in 1963, when I was twelve years...
America’s Highest Profit Companies 1994-2019
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the companies which made...
Big Companies Hiring (and Laying Off) Employees
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the largest employers...
Dinosaur Age: Charting Giant Companies 66 Years Ago
“Last week we brought you an unprecedented animated chart of the Fortune 500 list since 1994. Here we go back another 40 years, when steel companies and meatpackers were still giants. Taken together, you can learn a lot from 65 years of history.” Last...
25 Years of the Fortune 500 Animated Chart
An updated 2022 version of this chart can be seen here. The saga of American business in one chart! The fall of Enron, the rise of Apple and Amazon, the enduring legacy of John Rockefeller in Exxon and Chevron – see the years fly by! Below the two charts...Where Americans are Leaving
Two weeks ago, we presented an animated chart showing the most popular American cities – the metropolitan areas which received the most domestic migrants in each year from 2010 through 2018. This week, we created an animated chart showing “the...24 years of Big Company Change
American Spending Patterns 1929 to 2018
This week, we present more of our animated “bar race charts” made with Flourish.studio, in which you can see how change takes place over time. We have produced two versions, one for close study that takes five minutes and a very fast one that you can watch in...The Rise and Fall of American Cities
History lovers, Today we present something a little different….an animated chart showing the rise and fall of American cities. If you play (or replay) the graphic linked here, you will see the rise and fall of the thirty most populous metropolitan areas in the...The First Fortune 500 – 1954 Data
The first Fortune 500 – 1954 Data set Source: Fortune Magazine 1954 The First Fortune 500 1954 Data (XLSX)US Auto Production by Make 1896-1966
Here are estimates of the largest car makers in the early years of the industry, 1896-1966. Source: The American Car since 1775, 1971, by the Editors of Automobile Quarterly US Auto Production by Make 1896-1966...1955 Fortune 500 companies no longer independent
Here is our first effort to list the companies that were on the Fortune 500 list in 1955 that no longer exist as independent companies. We have more work to do here, going down the entire list. But it should remind us of all the fallen giants! Source:...Market Capitalization Large US Companies 1964
Largest US companies and their Market Capitalizations in 1964. Market Capitalization Large US Companies 1964 (XLSX)1969 largest hotel chains
Here is a list of the largest US-based hotel chains in 1969, including the number of hotels and motels (“units”). Source: Institutions Magazine 400 1969 list. 1969 largest hotel chains (XLSX)Largest Companies 1917 and 1929
Here are lists of selected large American companies in 1917 and 1929. The notes on the spreadsheet tabs are important to read. Source: Forbes Magazine 50th Anniversary Issue, 9/15/1967 Largest Companies 1917 and 1929 (XLSX) In our continuing research, we...
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