The Fortune 500 - known worldwide as an elite collection of America’s 500 largest companies by revenue. But what does it take to make it onto this prestigious list? Take a look at our chart below where we’ve visualized all Fortune 500 companies as color-coded pieces.

Each Fortune 500 company on the chart is color-coded based on its sector. Maroon for financial, green for healthcare, blue to retail, and so on. The ledger on the right shows each sector and that sector’s combined revenue. Each circle on each of the pieces represents $1000 million of revenue. The more circles and the larger the piece, the larger the revenue of that company.

Top Fortune 500 Companies by Revenue

• Walmart - Revenue: $482.13bn

• Exxon Mobile - Revenue: $246.2bn

• Apple - Revenue: $233.72bn

• Berkshire Hathaway - Revenue: $210.82bn

• McKesson - Revenue: $181.24bn

• UnitedHealth Group - Revenue: $157.12bn

• CVS Health - Revenue: $153.29bn

• General Motors - Revenue: $152.36bn

• Ford Motor - Revenue: $149.56bn

• AT&T - Revenue: $146.8bn

Top 5 Sectors on the Fortune 500 by Total Revenue

• Financial - Revenue: $2 Trillion

• Healthcare - Revenue: $1.5 Trillion

• Retail - Revenue: $1.4 Trillion

• Energy - Revenue: $1.3 Trillion

• Technology - Revenue: $1.2 Trillion

One of the most obvious trends revealed by our chart is the dominance of America’s five big sectors. It is well known to economists that finance, healthcare, retail, energy and technology are the cornerstone sectors of the US economy. Fortune 500 companies in these five sectors have combined revenues of more than $1 trillion each. The massive financial sector of the Fortune 500 boasts combined company revenues of $2 trillion. The Food, Beverage and Tobacco sector comes in at sixth place with combined revenues of $496 billion, less than half of the sector just above it. The Motor Vehicle & Parts sector is America’s 9th largest sector at $449 billion. However, over 67 percent of this sector it made up of just two companies: General Motors and Ford Motor.  These two companies sit at the 8th and 9th place spots with combined revenue of $301.72 billion.

One interesting thing to note is the relatively small number of financial companies in top positions on the Fortune 500 list. Despite being the biggest sector when revenues are combined, only one financial company exists in the top 10 and only three financial companies exist in the top 25. The famous Berkshire Hathaway - founded and run by billionaire and investor extraordinaire Warren Buffet - has the largest revenue among financial companies and sits at fourth place overall at $210.82 billion. Fannie Mae, which was taken over by the government following the subprime mortgage crisis, is 16th on the Fortune 500 list with $110.36 billion in revenue. JP Morgan Chase, the world’s largest investment bank, sits at the 23rd place spot with revenue of $101 billion.

Unsurprising to most, there are many easily recognized companies and name brands on the Fortune 500 list. Retail giant Walmart sits at the top of the Fortune 500 with $482.13 billion in revenue. Apple Inc., the maker of the world famous iPhone, sits at third place with revenue of $233.72 billion. Other well-known companies on the Fortune 500 list include Kraft Heinz, Best Buy, American Airlines, Disney, Nike, Comcast, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Coke, Pepsi and Amazon.
The diversity of colors on our chart reveals the diversity of the Fortune 500 itself. The top companies have massive revenues compared to others, but range over many different sectors, including finance, energy, technology, healthcare, motor vehicles, telecommunications and retail. Each of those little circles on each piece represents a billion dollars in revenue, revealing the true power of the Fortune 500.

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