New Fortune 500 Rankings: Texas Overtakes California, But Amazon is #1, Beating Walmart (yahoo.com)
(Sunday June 07, 2026 @04:29PM (EditorDavid)
from the sunshine-states dept.)
- Reference: 0183645744
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/06/07/2027239/new-fortune-500-rankings-texas-overtakes-california-but-amazon-is-1-beating-walmart
- Source link: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/california-falls-behind-texas-fortune-100000901.html
"Texas has dethroned California as the state with the most Fortune 500 companies," [1]reports the Los Angeles Times :
> The Fortune 500 list ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue. This year, 57 of the top companies are headquartered in Texas, compared with California's 56. It's a reversal from two years ago when the Golden State had the pole position...
>
> California's corporate haters say they try to [2]avoid the state's high costs , income taxes and strict regulations, but the western state is still a top money maker. "California dominates on nearly every other measure: its Fortune 500 companies are the most profitable ($647 billion), most valuable ($20 trillion), and employ more people than any other state (2.8 million workers)," Fortune said in a news release. Indeed, [3]despite the naysayers , Californian companies have been [4]leading the world in developing artificial intelligence technology as well as the latest in space and defense tech. The state is home to nearly 400 "unicorns," or billion-dollar startups — more than any other state, according to CB Insights. It also gobbled up nearly two-thirds of U.S. venture capital last year, with San Francisco Bay Area startups such as OpenAI leading the way, according to the business information platform Crunchbase.
>
> Texas and California have been in a tug-of-war for the crown. In [5]2024 , after a decade, California bagged the top spot with 57 companies on the list, while Texas and New York tied in second with 52 companies each... The fourth spot was tied between Illinois and Ohio, with 29 companies each.
>
> Amazon was the top company on the list, ending Walmart's 13-year reign at the top of the annual Fortune 500 companies list. Amazon's 2025 revenue was $716.9 billion, compared with Walmart's $713.2 billion. Seattle-headquartered Amazon joined Exxon Mobil, General Motors, and Walmart as the only four companies to have ever held the top position since Fortune began publishing the data in 1955.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/california-falls-behind-texas-fortune-100000901.html
[2] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-06-05/californian-conundrum-high-growth-but-high-unemployment
[3] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-01-08/californias-exodus-isnt-just-billionaires-its-regular-people-renting-u-hauls-too
[4] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-04-17/la-fi-california-business-relocations
[5] https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/06/04/icymi-california-is-now-home-to-the-most-fortune-500-companies-in-the-country/
> The Fortune 500 list ranks the largest U.S. companies by revenue. This year, 57 of the top companies are headquartered in Texas, compared with California's 56. It's a reversal from two years ago when the Golden State had the pole position...
>
> California's corporate haters say they try to [2]avoid the state's high costs , income taxes and strict regulations, but the western state is still a top money maker. "California dominates on nearly every other measure: its Fortune 500 companies are the most profitable ($647 billion), most valuable ($20 trillion), and employ more people than any other state (2.8 million workers)," Fortune said in a news release. Indeed, [3]despite the naysayers , Californian companies have been [4]leading the world in developing artificial intelligence technology as well as the latest in space and defense tech. The state is home to nearly 400 "unicorns," or billion-dollar startups — more than any other state, according to CB Insights. It also gobbled up nearly two-thirds of U.S. venture capital last year, with San Francisco Bay Area startups such as OpenAI leading the way, according to the business information platform Crunchbase.
>
> Texas and California have been in a tug-of-war for the crown. In [5]2024 , after a decade, California bagged the top spot with 57 companies on the list, while Texas and New York tied in second with 52 companies each... The fourth spot was tied between Illinois and Ohio, with 29 companies each.
>
> Amazon was the top company on the list, ending Walmart's 13-year reign at the top of the annual Fortune 500 companies list. Amazon's 2025 revenue was $716.9 billion, compared with Walmart's $713.2 billion. Seattle-headquartered Amazon joined Exxon Mobil, General Motors, and Walmart as the only four companies to have ever held the top position since Fortune began publishing the data in 1955.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/california-falls-behind-texas-fortune-100000901.html
[2] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-06-05/californian-conundrum-high-growth-but-high-unemployment
[3] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-01-08/californias-exodus-isnt-just-billionaires-its-regular-people-renting-u-hauls-too
[4] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-04-17/la-fi-california-business-relocations
[5] https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/06/04/icymi-california-is-now-home-to-the-most-fortune-500-companies-in-the-country/
Now do incorporation (Score:2)
by larryjoe ( 135075 )
Yep, Texas is nothing compared to Delaware. Of course, that's just based on incorporation, which has nothing to do with where most employees work or where most revenue is generated, so it's silly to boast about that. Then again, it's no less silly to boast about where the headquarters are physically located.
But but but... (Score:3)
...but Fox said that California is bad! How many of the Fortune 500 companies now in Texas actually started in California and then moved to Texas and still have a substantial California presence? The game is called talent, and talent doesn't want to move to Texas, especially female talent.
Re: (Score:3)
> ...but Fox said that California is bad! How many of the Fortune 500 companies now in Texas actually started in California and then moved to Texas and still have a substantial California presence? The game is called talent, and talent doesn't want to move to Texas, especially female talent.
I imagine they (are told to) say that because Texas gives preference to corporations over its citizens while California doesn't, but that's just a guess. For example, [1]Public School Rankings by State 2026 [worldpopul...review.com] has CA at #8 and TX at #34 - surprisingly, the latter is lower than FL at #24. (New York is highest at #1, btw.)
[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state
Re: (Score:2)
no sources huh?
Typical Fox news viewer.