The list of the world’s largest companies for 2007 was recently published on CNNMoney.com’s Fortune online site. The complete list outlines the top 500 largest and most profitable corporations in the world. Here are the top 10 world’s biggest companies for 2007 (courtesy Fortune):

Company	Revenues ($)	Profits ($)
Wal-Mart	351.1 billion	11.3 billion
ExxonMobil	347.3 billion	39.5 billion
Royal Dutch Shell	318.8 billion	25.4 billion
BP	274.3 billion	22 billion
General Motors	207.3 billion	-2 billion
Toyota Motor	204.7 billion	14.1 billion
Chevron	200.6 billion	17.1 billion
DaimlerChrysler	190.2 billion	4 billion
ConocoPhillips	172.5 billion	15.6 billion
Total	168.4 billion	14.8 billion

It is also interesting to note that the top 10 is dominated by oil. Either oil/gasoline producers or gasoline consumers (automobile) make up 9 of the top 10. However, as CNNMoney says, “Big Oil might dominate the top ten, but money dominates the top 25. Ten of those are financial services firms.” Retail banking is also a large component.

While these revenue numbers of the top corporations in the world may seem staggering, they are a reflection of the international nature of business today. In order to get truly big, you must be global as a company, and strongly global. Without having the world as a market, a company’s growth and size will be restricted.

The USA is still outpowering all countries in this measure of economic might. Companies based in the USA still make up 5 of top 10 companies, and 162 of the 500 largest companies. However, countries like China are starting to show excellent improvement. The diverse international representation in the top 500 corporations will only continue to increase.