2024 Fortune 500 All-star List: Most Admired Companies in the World

Large tech firms used to be outsider disruptors in the global economy. These companies are the stars of the modern economy, propelling it forward. The 2024 Fortune 500 all-star list Tech giants’ elevated standing in the eyes and sentiments of other business executives is exemplified by the World’s Most Admired Companies list. Our annual corporate reputation ranking is derived from a survey that we administer to around 3,700 executives, directors, and analysts.

Apple has been at the top of the list for the past 17 years. For the fifth consecutive year, Amazon and Microsoft completed the top three positions. Nvidia, meanwhile, shot to an all-time high of 10th place in the rankings. The world’s generative AI research is being powered by the company’s GPU chips. In other news, coronavirus vaccine manufacturer Moderna (No. 37) and big retailer Walmart (No. 9) both made it back into the top 10 for the first time in 14 years.

Regretfully, Chinese companies are once again not represented on the All-Star list this year. China, on the other hand, has five shortlisted companies on the industry list, down from seven last year and five in 2023. The Chinese companies of the year are Haier Smart Home (Ranked No. 5 in the home equipment and home furnishing industry), Alibaba (Ranked No. 8 in the Internet services and retail industry), TSMC Inc. (Ranked No. 3) in the semiconductor industry, and ASUS Computer (Ranked No. 6) and Lenovo (Ranked No. 7) in the computer industry.

2024 Fortune 500 All-star List

*Denotes a tie

To the surprise of some business leaders, chipmaker Nvidia has surged to the top of the U.S. tech company rankings over the last year. However, those who keep track of Fortune’s ranking of the most admired companies globally might have observed this incredible turnaround seven years prior.

After all, Fortune listed Nvidia as the world’s most admired semiconductor company in 2017, beating out Intel. In terms of revenue, Intel was roughly ten times larger than Nvidia at the time and was setting the standard for PC and laptop chips. Given this, this modification seems akin to a mouse swatting a cat. However, Nvidia remained at the top of the semiconductor industry for six of the following seven years. With the emergence of generative AI in 2023, the business has grown to be a trillion-dollar tech giant.

The Nvidia story also somewhat demonstrates the industry rankings published by Fortune magazine’s ability to forecast future trends. In actuality, two lists comprise the list of the most admired companies in the world. Businesses are ranked in the All-Star list according to their overall reputation in the business community. Insiders are surveyed for industry rankings to learn more about their companies and, more significantly, about direct competitors. On a scale of 1 to 10, respondents were asked to rate the companies according to nine criteria, such as management quality, innovation, and talent attraction ability. In summary, insiders can use this ranking to learn which companies are rising to the top, which ones are doing well in specific areas and more.

Respondents to this year’s survey gave Nvidia excellent ratings in almost every category. Out of the nine metrics we evaluated, seven were among the top 10 for all companies. Apple is in the same boat. Not surprisingly, Apple has dominated the computer industry for the past 15 years, having held the top spot 14 times. Nvidia must, of course, never rest on its laurels. The company needs to see that five of AMD’s indicators are in the top 10, which puts them in competition with it for the best artificial intelligence chips.

Large corporations frequently hold the top spot in their industry for ten or more years in a row. Bancorp, a super-regional bank, and UnitedHealth Group (health insurance and managed care) ranked first for the 14th year in a row, while Starbucks (food service) and BlackRock (asset management) topped the list this year for the 12th year in a row. Since we conducted our survey, Berkshire Hathaway, led by Warren Buffett, has dominated the property and casualty insurance market for 26 years running.

Stability is still not the norm, though. This year, the top companies in 15 out of the 47 industries we tracked have changed, and some long-standing hegemons have even fallen off the charts. The leading agrochemical company in the food production sector is Corteva, which separated from DuPont in 2019. Thus, Tyson Foods, a poultry producer, has dropped out of the top spot on the list after holding it for seven years. The ten-year dominance of Eli Lilly in the pharmaceutical sector came to an end. Eli Lilly’s ascent to prominence has been propelled by the triumph of its medications targeting obesity and diabetes, as well as an encouraging outcome from a clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s treatment.

Possibly the biggest shift to hit any industry has been in entertainment, as Netflix overthrew Walt Disney, which had been at the top of the charts for 20 years. This outcome partially reflects streaming’s increasing dominance. Netflix really invented this medium; Disney, it seems, still hasn’t cracked the streaming code. It turns out that the only way to make an impression on your peers is to set an example.

NVidia

The chip manufacturer Nvidia and its CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang have reached previously unheard-of heights thanks to the surge in investment in generative AI. Large language models and machine learning are trained on a foundation of graphics processing units (GPUs), which is essential to the technology’s success.

Nvidia, the industry leader in GPU design, has taken advantage of the rising demand, seeing a nearly twofold increase in revenue to over $44 billion in 2023 and a surge in market capitalization to over $1 trillion. It won’t be simple to replicate the 2023 boom with rivals swarming in and Nvidia struggling with American restrictions on chip exports to China.

Huang could not afford to become complacent after leading the company through several near-death experiences in his early years. “We are well aware that this company has been in a hazardous situation. Regarding Nvidia, he recently stated this.

Disney

In 2023, the massive entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney Company will mark its 100th anniversary. However, those who participated in a survey about Fortune’s list of the most admired businesses worldwide didn’t appear to plan to celebrate: Disney ranked No. 12 this year, making its first appearance outside the top 10 of the All-Star list since 2012.

Its decline is attributed to several factors, such as lingering unease over the management transition following CEO Bob Chapek’s resignation in 2022 and the return of his predecessor Bob Iger, Disney+’s streaming division’s ongoing financial losses, and viewers’ fatigue with the once-unstoppable Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Mr. Iger has a difficult task ahead of him: he must turn things around by reducing expenses and taking other steps without jeopardizing Disney’s still-attractive brand, all while coming under pressure from investors.

Evaluate the number one

Every year, we request nominations from participants for the “most underrated” Fortune 500 CEO. They frequently select leaders who quietly accomplish great things without causing a stir. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Satya Nadella of Microsoft has won the prize for eight years running due to his wise investment in OpenAI. Other notable voters were Tim Cook of Apple, Mary Barra of General Motors, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia. In addition to negotiating a historic labor deal, Barra guided the business through an uneven transition to electric vehicles. Conversely, Elon Musk of Tesla and Bob Iger of Disney rank first and second, respectively, among the “most overrated” CEOs.

Ranking method

As usual, Fortune and Korn Ferry collaborate to carry out the business’s creditworthiness assessment. Approximately 1,500 companies were first chosen, comprising non-US companies with revenues exceeding $10 billion from the Fortune Global 500 database and the 1,000 biggest U.S. companies ranked by revenue. We sorted through the top-earning businesses in every sector, interviewing 660 companies across 29 nations. The 660 companies with the highest scores were all part of the same industry, as were the executives who cast their votes for those companies.

Korn Ferry asked executives, directors, and analysts in 52 industries to rank companies according to nine criteria: investment value, product quality and management, social responsibility, and talent attraction. The goal was to find the most reputable companies across the industries. Businesses in the top 50% of industry surveys are required to be on the list.

Korn Ferry’s 3,720 executives, directors, and securities analysts who participated in the industry survey chose the ten companies they most admired to compile a list of the 50 most admired companies across all industries. They chose businesses that placed in the top 20% of their respective industry surveys and the top 25% of the survey from the previous year. Voting is not restricted to companies or industries.

Voting technique variations can produce some unusual results that seem to contradict one another. For instance, Lockheed Martin was removed from this year’s All-Star roster. But Lockheed Martin won the top spot when only individuals from the aerospace and defense sector voted.