- BYD leads Chinese automakers on the Fortune Global 500 at 91st with $111.9B revenue and $4.54B profit.
- CATL soars 43 spots to 260th and posts a dominant 17% profit margin, outsizing automakers' combined profits.
- Eight Chinese vehicle makers show weak returns amid fierce EV competition, forcing painful electrification transitions.
The 2026 Fortune Global 500 list has been officially released.
The combined revenue of this year’s listed companies reached approximately $43.1 trillion, exceeding one-third of global GDP and rising about 3.2% from the previous year.
The entry threshold (minimum revenue) increased from $32.2 billion to $33.2 billion, up 3% from a year ago. The total net profit of all listed companies surged about 14% year-on-year to roughly $3.4 trillion.
This year, including companies from Taiwan, China has a total of 122 companies on the list, down 8 from last year, once again ranking second in the number of listed companies, behind only the United States.
Among the 35 global vehicle and parts companies on the list, China has 10 automotive and automotive parts companies, second only to the United States in number.
The 10 companies are: BYD (91st), SAIC Motor (125th), Geely Holding Group (138th), FAW Group (183rd), CATL (260th), GAC Group (299th), Dongfeng Motor Group (319th), Chery Automobile (383rd), BAIC Group (413th), and Jardine Matheson (483rd).
Except for BYD, SAIC Motor, Geely Holding, CATL, and Chery Automobile, the rankings of the other five companies all declined compared with last year.
Among them, the highest-ranked is BYD, in 91st place, unchanged from the previous year. Data shows that in 2025, BYD achieved revenue of $111.853 billion and profit of $4.538 billion.
SAIC Motor ranked second among Chinese automakers at 125th place, up 13 spots from last year. CATL’s ranking climbed 43 spots to 260th, making it the Chinese automotive industry chain company with the biggest improvement.
Chery Automobile made the list for the first time as a listed entity, ranking 383rd, and is the only automaker to rank among the global top 50 in ROE.
By comparison, FAW Group fell 19 spots to 183rd, GAC Group dropped 47 spots to 299th, Dongfeng Motor Group slipped 28 spots to 319th, and BAIC Group plunged 212 spots to 413th.
Notably, looking at the returns of the 10 Chinese companies on the list, upstream automotive industry chain companies are clearly more profitable than downstream vehicle manufacturers.
CATL led by a wide margin with a 17% profit margin. Among the automakers, GAC (-1.3%) and Geely (-1.0%) both posted negative margins, BAIC had a zero margin, Dongfeng, SAIC and FAW were all below 2%, BYD had 4.1%, and Chery had 6.3%.
Behind these numbers lies a stark reality – the eight Chinese vehicle manufacturers combined do not earn as much as CATL alone.
The report emphasized that the performance of automotive companies on the list continues to diverge, reflecting intensifying competition in the new energy sector and the pressure traditional automakers face in their transition to electrification.
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