California home to most Fortune 500 companies, beats out Texas and New York
SAUSALITO, CA - FILE: The Transamerica Pyramid building is seen through the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO - For the first time in a decade, California is home to the most Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., with a majority of the firms on the state’s list headquartered here in the Bay Area.
The 70th annual ranking by Fortune showed California with 57 companies, as it beat out Texas and New York this year, which tied for second place. They each had a list of 52 Fortune 500 companies.
"Texas has proven to be tough competition in recent years, with companies like Tesla and pharmaceutical giant McKesson moving their headquarters to the Lone Star state to leverage its business-friendly policies," Fortune said, adding, New York has also remained a competitor as it has long been the epicenter of the banking and financial consulting world.
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In California, Cupertino-based Apple, which was ranked the third-largest, led the list.
Apple was only preceded by Walmart and Amazon, which ranked first and second respectively.
The top five Fortune 500 companies based in California were all in the Bay Area:
- Apple, Cupertino, No. 3
- Alphabet, Mountain View, No. 8
- Chevron, San Ramon, No. 15
- Meta Platforms, Menlo Park, No. 30
- Wells Fargo, San Francisco, No. 34
In fact, Bay Area companies dominated the list: 44 of the 57 were all based in the region.
Fortune said with leaps and advancements in artificial intelligence and California being a leader in high-tech, the state was well-poised to take the top spot.
"California has long been a hub of economic success, and with the world’s recent AI explosion, America’s technology capital is ready to soar to even greater heights," the publication said.
Fortune also noted that California came out on top despite the fact that five companies fell off its list this year.
That's because the Golden State picked up nine companies, including San Francisco-based food deliverer DoorDash and real estate investment firm Prologis, as well as Oakland-based Clorox and software company Workday, headquartered in Pleasanton.
With the news, Governor Gavin Newsom seized the opportunity to highlight California's economic standing as the fifth-largest economy in the world.
"California is home to 35 of the world’s 50 leading AI companies, high-impact research and education institutions, and a quarter of the technology’s patents and conference papers," Newsom’s office said, adding the state is number one in the country for access to venture capital funding and is the leader in manufacturing, high-tech and agriculture.
Fortune said the companies on its list made up two-thirds of the U.S. gross domestic product, totaling $18.8 trillion in revenues with net income amounting to $1.7 trillion. They also employed 31 million people worldwide.