Fortune 500

Speaking at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 2023 as part of its Distinguished Speakers Series, Arvind Krishna offered some advice to future leaders: being fired is better than giving up on something you believe in. ”In the end, I do believe strongly in my heart and my brain that merit and the right idea do carry a lot of weight,” Krishna said. Last year, IBM ranked #68 on the #Fortune500 list. Find out where they land on the 2026 list, publishing June 3. Read more: https://bit.ly/4aT0D5L

Long before he became CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon got a tough lesson from his father after complaining he never had enough money: the problem wasn’t cash. It was time. “He told me to take out a calendar and write down everything I did each day,” Solomon recalled this past weekend to MBA graduates of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “And I noticed, when I had to account for every minute, that I actually wasted a reasonable amount of time.” The lesson struck. Decades later, Solomon distilled it into advice for young workers navigating a labor market defined by uncertainty in the AI era: embrace criticism, stay open to change, and lean into the opportunities in front of you. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eXi4Ttuu

One of the biggest successes in credit card history was cemented over a giant steak when American Express CEO Stephen Squeri met with Delta CEO Ed Bastian. The conversation topic? How to “stop fighting over slices and grow the pie together,” recalls Bastian. By 2019, Squeri and Bastian achieved such comfort that they extended their partnership to the end of 2029, and clicked so well that they are now buddies in pursuing both profit and fun. Read more: https://bit.ly/4dBX8Fx

The first-ever #Fortune500 list was released in July of 1955. Since then, we've released a ranking of the 500 largest U.S. companies by revenue ever year. Take a look at some of our favorite covers over the years—and keep an eye out for the 2026 Fortune 500 list, dropping June 3rd. Read more: https://bit.ly/4aT0D5L

According to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, the biggest risk to professionals isn’t AI itself—it’s refusing to evolve alongside it. “The two types of people who will not make the shift to AI are pure people managers, and people that [sic] are rigid and don’t want to change and evolve,” Chesky said recently on the Invest Like The Best podcast. Chesky explained that as AI transforms company structures and how staffers do their jobs, bosses need to adapt to the new era, adopting a more technical approach rather than focusing solely on team leadership. Read more: https://bit.ly/4u4Ngdi

All the world’s a stage. Now that’s even true of the usually dull quarterly earnings call. Increasingly, the day a company reports its earnings is also the day its CEO drops a selfie‑style video or LinkedIn essay translating the results for employees and customers. But in February, Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff took it a step further, turning his routine fourth-quarter earnings call into an influencer-style production. Afterward, Salesforce’s social media team sliced the show into a short clip, extending a dry, hour-long phone call into snackable content. As CEOs search for ways to control their own narrative in an era of always-on social media and pressure from artificial intelligence, the once‑stodgy earnings call is morphing into a new kind of corporate performance designed to be watched, clipped, and shared. Read more from the new digital issue of Fortune magazine: https://bit.ly/4waFjEK

Gone are the days when employee threats of resignations and a petition signed by thousands were enough to sway Google's position. Google has agreed to allow its Gemini AI models to be used inside the U.S. military’s classified networks for “any lawful purpose", and employees tell Fortune the leverage that once allowed technology workers to influence significant sway over the company’s policies has eroded. Though close to 600 employees signed an open letter opposing the deal, Google seems to be doubling down on its controversial deal with the Pentagon, telling staff in a memo that it “proudly” works with the U.S. military and plans to continue to do so. Read more: https://bit.ly/3OJYlkJ