Warner Bros. Discovery, which has dealt with big bombs like The Flash, a head-scratching rebrand of its streaming service, layoffs amid cratering advertising and an actors and writers strike halting its productions, can at least point to one positive: Its debut on the Fortune Global 500 list.
The media giant, formed last year from the combination of Discovery and Time Warner, which was previously owned by AT&T, eked in at 449.
The Fortune 500 list is the annual rundown of the biggest companies in the world by revenue. For the tenth year in a row, Walmart topped the charts. Walmart beat out Amazon, which fell from second place in 2022 to fourth place this year. The companies have long competed for top dog in the US.
This year Walmart earned $611.3 billion in revenue, up 6.7% since 2022. The company focused on expanding its healthcare business, partnering with UnitedHealth Group (ranked number ten on the list) for a ten-year deal to offer medical services in 15 stores. Walmart also launched a Medicare plan in Georgia.
Walmart isn’t the only company focusing efforts on accessible healthcare. Amazon launched Amazon Clinic last year and has since expanded the service to provide basic care coverage directed at those without health insurance throughout the US.
While Amazon’s revenue growth was higher than Walmart the 9% rate was its slowest in history as the high-flying company saw the winds go out as people stopped relying on online shopping so much in the wake of the pandemic.
Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell said “Even the world’s largest companies can be upended and dethroned” and “needs to watch its back”. The war in Ukraine is impacting oil and gas prices, creating an increase in revenue streams for Saudia Aramco. The company ranked second on Fortune’s list, up from sixth place last year.
For comparison, tech giant Apple came in eighth with $394.3 billion in revenue, growing 117.4% since last year.