For thirty-five years, Fortune has been tracking the world's largest companies in our Global 500 ranking. It's a strong barometer of global business, and last year a couple of trends collided to shake it up: Energy prices cooled, knocking down revenue for companies such as Saudi Aramco and Exxon Mobil; and AI got red-hot, fueling a boom for tech giants like Nvidia and Microsoft.
Which companies being built today will grow to be the world's biggest? It's the job of a venture capitalist to figure that out.
No VC firm has picked winners better than Sequoia Capital. In 1978 it gave Steve Jobs $150,000 to create Apple-now worth $3.6 trillion. Sequoia was also first to back Nvidia in 1993. It cut early checks for Google, Cisco, YouTube, and Airbnb.
This story is from the August - September 2024 edition of Fortune US.
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This story is from the August - September 2024 edition of Fortune US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Tech AI's Hidden Biases May Be Influencing What You Think. Here's What Should Be Done to Stop It - In less than two years, artificial intelligence has radically changed how many people write and find information.
In less than two years, artificial intelligence has radically changed how many people write and find information. While searching for details about Supreme Court precedent or polishing a college essay, millions seek help from AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude.In his newly published book, Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, Fortune AI editor Jeremy Kahn explores this new tech-infused reality and what should be done to avert the inevitable pitfalls. In the following excerpt, he focuses on the little-recognized problem of subtle bias in AI and the potentially profound influence it can have on what users believe.
A Return of the Entrepreneurial Spirit- As Japan finally emerges from a long period of slow growth, soy sauce producer Kikkoman continues its global advance.
In February 2024, the Nikkei Stock Average in Japan surpassed the record high that it set in 1990. To some, this peak signified that the country could finally put the "lost decades" of deflation and anemic growth behind. Yuzaburo Mogi, honorary CEO and chairman of the board of Kikkoman, is cautiously optimistic about this milestone. With a generational shift in motion, he sees Japan's leadership regaining some of its old dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit.
The AI Hangover- For thirty-five years, Fortune has been tracking the world's largest companies in our Global 500 ranking.
For thirty-five years, Fortune has been tracking the world's largest companies in our Global 500 ranking. We recently sat down with the head of Sequoia Capital, Roelof Botha, at our Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah, and at greater length for this issue's cover story. As he told Fortune's Michal Lev-Ram: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." To learn how he's guiding the firm to sort winners from losers amid the noise and hype, see page 60.
