The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. public corporations as measured by their gross revenue,[1] although Fortune makes adjustments to the revenue for a number of companies, particularly to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly- and privately-held companies for which revenues are publicly available.
Wal-Mart was the largest company on the list in 2007 and 2008. Exxon Mobil was in second place. [2]
Fortune 100 and Fortune 1000 refer to lists of top firms ranked similarly.