The annual Fortune 500 list of top global companies has recently been released and as the South China Morning Post reports the number of US companies featured has fallen to the lowest levels ever. Meanwhile more Chinese companies and other new entrants have risen to record levels. This is what we’re referred to in Chaotics as “The Rise of the Rest,” a term coined by CNN and Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria in his 2008 book of the same name.
A new chapter in global economic history has begun, one in which the United States, and to a lesser extent Europe, will no longer play its former dominant roles. A process of redistributing money and power around the world—away from the U.S. and Europe—and toward the resource-rich countries and rising industrialized nations in Asia and the rest of the emerging world has been underway for years. The financial crises of 2008 only accelerated the process.
For domestic Chinese companies, China’s continued growth has helped to propel them to new highs with a Chinese corporation reaching the top ten of the Fortune 500 for the first time ever. Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corp) came in ninth this year. There were a total of 37 firms in the Top 500 this year including 9 new entrants. The changing landscape is undeniable. Overall, Walmart was replaced at the top spot by Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, the first time in more than 10 years that a non-US firm ranked first on the list.
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