Forbes has published its latest rankings of the world's 2,000 biggest companies. For the first time ever, China's “Big Four” banks have taken over the top four spots, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (commonly known by the acronym ICBC) leading the list for the third straight year.
The list shows the dominance of the U.S. and China in the world's business landscape, with the two countries splitting the top 10 spots. The U.S. still claims the most total spots, while China has surpassed Japan for the first time to claim the second-highest number of companies in this year's Global 2000.
Global 2000 companies have a combined US$39 trillion in revenues, US$3 trillion in profits, US$162 trillion in assets and US$48 trillion in market value. Thanks to a bull market, the total market value of the 2,000 companies grew by 9 percent year-on-year.
Rankings were assigned based on a composite score that measures sales, profits, assets and market value.
The Forbes Global 2000 is a comprehensive list of the world's largest and most powerful public companies. This year's list, the 13th annual ranking since 2003, includes companies from 61 countries and regions.
The following are the 10 largest public companies in the world in 2015 according to Forbes.
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo [File photo]
Country: United States
Industry: Banking
Sales: US$90.4 billion
Profits: US$23.1 billion
Assets: US$1.701 trillion
Market value: US$278.3 billion
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