What Does it Cost to Run Big Business?
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The Briefing
- The cost of running a Fortune 500 company can easily exceed $100 billion annually
- Walmart’s operating costs in 2020 were equal to 70% of U.S. military spending
What Does it Cost to Run Big Business?
How much does it cost to run one of America’s largest corporations? For household names like Apple, Costco and Walmart, well over $100 billion each year.
To get a better sense of their massive scale, this chart compiles financial data from some of the largest Fortune 500 companies, and includes U.S. military spending as an additional point of comparison.
| Entity | Cost of Operations, USD billions | Revenues, USD billions | Operating Margin, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Military Spending | $778 | N/A | N/A |
| Walmart | $537 | $559 | 4% |
| Amazon | $363 | $386 | 6% |
| Apple | $170 | $275 | 38% |
| CVS Health | $255 | $269 | 5% |
| Berkshire Hathaway | $231 | $246 | 6% |
| Alphabet | $142 | $183 | 22% |
| ExxonMobil | $210 | $182 | -15% |
| AT&T | $165 | $172 | 4% |
| Costco Wholesale | $161 | $167 | 4% |
To determine each company’s total cost of operations, we combined its selling, general & administrative expense (SG&A) and its cost of goods sold (Read more...)