This year’s list tells a story of inflation and global tensions.
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TechTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - The Global 500 ranks the largest companies
00:04 in the world by revenue.
00:06 The smallest company on this year's list
00:08 has about $31 billion in revenue.
00:11 In contrast, the smallest company in the US 500
00:14 this year has about $7 billion in revenue.
00:16 (upbeat music)
00:19 - While the world's getting more fragmented in ways,
00:23 the risks are getting more connected and correlated.
00:26 So I think the challenge is resiliency.
00:29 Mortgage rates rose more than 3%.
00:31 Home prices rose by 8%.
00:33 That impacts affordability for home ownership.
00:36 - The economics of every geography are slightly different,
00:39 but there is definitely commonality
00:41 around inflation and general uncertainty.
00:43 (upbeat music)
00:45 - 2022 really stood out for expectations
00:53 that we were going to have a recession.
00:56 There was also an increase in focus on US-China tensions,
01:01 a lot of talk about decoupling,
01:03 and a big transformation to the global commodity markets
01:08 with a real redirection of commodity exports
01:11 as Russia directed more of its exports east and south.
01:16 And you saw that Europe did a pivot to the west
01:19 and away from Russia.
01:21 - Inflation was starting to rise
01:23 before Russia invaded Ukraine,
01:25 but that invasion affected the world's oil and food supplies
01:29 and drove prices up for that.
01:30 The conventional wisdom is that inflation
01:33 hurts corporate profits.
01:34 The profits of the Global 500
01:36 were down slightly from last year,
01:39 but collectively they still earned
01:40 almost $3 trillion in profits,
01:43 which is the second highest total ever.
01:45 Number one is Walmart.
01:48 It is their 10th consecutive year at number one.
01:51 Number two is Saudi Aramco,
01:53 the Saudi Arabian national crude oil producer.
01:56 Number three is State Grid,
01:57 which is China's big national electric utility.
02:01 Number four is Amazon.
02:03 And number five is China National Petroleum.
02:06 The story that the US 500 tells
02:10 has recently been very much a story
02:11 about the huge domination of big tech.
02:14 All of these companies building tech expertise
02:17 into huge businesses.
02:18 And of course, that's an important global story.
02:20 But the Global 500 reminds you
02:22 that the rise of big tech is just one story.
02:25 All those companies are still there,
02:27 but you also look down the list
02:29 and you're seeing huge European and Chinese oil companies,
02:33 big global auto manufacturers like Volkswagen and Toyota.
02:37 And it reminds you how much of the global workforce
02:41 and how much global capital is still tied up
02:43 and laboring in these dominant industries
02:46 of the 20th century.
02:47 All of these companies are trying to transition
02:49 into a 21st century economy
02:51 that might be greener and higher tech,
02:53 but they're not there yet.
02:55 And this list kind of proves that.
02:57 - We need a holistic policy
02:59 that takes into consideration energy reliability,
03:03 affordability, and energy security.
03:07 Oil and gas will continue to be part
03:09 of the energy mix for decades.
03:11 - Oil prices surged in 2022.
03:14 And as a result, Saudi Aramco's revenue
03:16 was up about 50% over 2021.
03:20 So they were just within about $8 billion
03:22 of catching Walmart, which in terms of companies this big,
03:24 that's like a rounding error.
03:26 Came really, really close.
03:27 They also had the most profitable year
03:29 that any Global 500 company has ever had.
03:32 They earned $159 billion, with a B, in profits.
03:37 There are more companies from greater China
03:41 than there are from the US,
03:42 but the US companies on the Global 500
03:44 collectively brought in quite a bit more revenue
03:46 than the ones from greater China.
03:49 (upbeat music)
03:51 - We are a long way, a long, long way
04:00 from being anywhere close to the kind of representation
04:03 in leadership, whether that's of companies
04:06 or governments or institutions,
04:09 that better represents the societies that we serve.
04:11 - At Fannie Mae today, close to 60% of our employee base
04:16 are people of color.
04:17 As a Latina myself, I'm passionate about diversity,
04:21 inclusion, equal opportunity.
04:24 First of all, it's good for business.
04:26 It responds to changes we're seeing in demographics
04:30 and it honors our mission.
04:31 - I think that in 2023, the market is still waiting
04:39 to see this recession because of the magnitude
04:42 of rate hikes that we've seen across central banks
04:45 and what kind of slowdown will it be?
04:47 Is a soft landing possible?
04:49 Is it gonna be a mild recession?
04:51 Or is there a risk that the longer this is delayed,
04:54 that you could have a synchronized global downturn?
04:57 We have yet to see a resolution of Russia's war on Ukraine.
05:01 We've seen permanent shifts into the commodity markets,
05:04 but we'll continue to see that trade patterns,
05:07 investment flows, supply chain resilience,
05:10 reducing dependencies remain very much in the narrative.
05:15 And I think you will see that the global South,
05:17 the emerging markets countries are going to play
05:19 a bigger role, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia.
05:23 - Indonesia economic growth in 2023 is predicted to grow
05:29 in the 4.5 up to 5.3%.
05:32 We believe Pertamina will grow due to the potential increase
05:35 of domestic economy ahead.
05:37 - And I think when it comes to Russia,
05:42 when it comes to the pandemic,
05:43 to climate change and to those challenges
05:46 that are part of the agenda for us leaders
05:50 of our generation,
05:52 I think we were not trained for any of those.
05:55 - These past few years of pandemic, geopolitical crisis,
05:58 supply chain disruption, climate change
06:01 and inflationary pressures mark the dawn of a new era,
06:05 which I call multipolar.
06:06 This new multipolar world requires companies
06:09 to become better, to become ever more agile
06:12 and to constantly transform and adapt.
06:14 - I don't know what the future is going to look like,
06:16 but what we've learned as Walmart
06:18 through the last few years in particular,
06:21 is staying agile, staying nimble, having data,
06:25 really thinking about how we use that is critical.
06:28 - You need to adapt much faster.
06:30 You no longer have time to learn everything.
06:34 You need to learn as much as you can and then act.
06:37 (upbeat music)
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06:42 (upbeat music)
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