Fortune magazine published this week the latest version of its list of the 500 largest global companies. The company that came in first place is a classic: Walmart, the retail giant with sales of US$648,145 million (twice Chile's GDP), 2.1 million employees and profits of US$15,511 million. (twice the GDP of Chile), 2.1 million employees and profits of US$15,511 million. The company operates in 19 countries, including - in Latin America - Mexico, Chile and Nicaragua. It has held the first place in the ranking 11 times in a row.

In second place was Amazon, with sales of US$ 574,785 million, displacing Saudi Aramco, which dropped to fourth place. In third place, meanwhile, is State Grid, the Chinese state-owned electricity transmission and distribution company, which in Chile serves more than half of the electricity service customers, after the purchase - in 2020 - of the assets in the country of Sempra (USA), led by the distributor Chilquinta, and of CGE from the Spanish company Naturgy. State Grid, with more than 1.36 million employees, has sales of US$545,947 million.

As noted, Saudi Aramco fell to fourth place. Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, which has just started operations in Chile, reports an 18% drop in revenues to US$494.89 billion, reports an 18% drop in revenues, to US$494.89 billion. However, it is the company with the highest profits in the ranking, with US$120,699 million.

For the first time since 2018, the presence of U.S. companies in the ranking exceeds that of Chinese companies: 139 versus 133, respectively. The aggregate profits of the 500 companies listed in the ranking -US$42 trillion (millions of millions)- have remained flat compared to last year's data, with a variation of 0.01%. However, the aggregate profits of U.S. companies rose by 6.5%, reaching a total of US$13.8 trillion.

Check the ranking at Global 500 | Fortune