Revenue and market value tell completely different stories. Walmart tops this list at $681 billion in sales yet ranks only 16th by market capitalisation, while NVIDIA — the world's most valuable company — does not even clear this list's $254.5 billion cut-off.

The margin spread is starker still: drug distributor Cencora earns $0.51 on every $100 of revenue against Apple's roughly $24, a 47-fold gap, even though Apple's sales are only about a third larger. The top 20 also holds four Chinese state-owned enterprises (State Grid, CNPC, Sinopec, and China State Construction) and four American healthcare and drug-distribution groups — together exactly 40% of the list.

One more thing: on the fiscal-2025 results reported afterwards, Amazon's revenue reached $716 billion and passed Walmart's for the first time, so the 2026 edition will most likely have a new leader.