AMERICA'S BIGGEST COMPANIE PREPARE FOR THE UNKNOWABLE

THERE’S NO SHORTAGE of reasons these days for business leaders to lose sleep over what-ifs.

- BY MATT HEIMER

What if tariffs crush my supply chain? What if inflation impoverishes my customers? What if AI makes my company obsolete? What if some other technology makes my company obsolete while I’m worrying about AI?

Everybody's got the Sunday scar-ies, every day of the week. Many measures of CEO confidence plunged in April after President Trump unveiled a stunningly broad and deep round of tariffs. Consumer optimism has plummeted still further, even after the administration scaled some of them back. Giants like General Motors, UPS, and Delta Air Lines have withdrawn their full-year earnings guidance, because they have no clue whether an unforeseen policy plot twist might kneecap their profits.

Amid all this agita, you might be surprised to learn this: The Fortune 500, our authoritative list of America’s largest companies, has never been more stable.

In this year’s edition, our 71st, only 22 companies from the previous year were displaced—the second-lowest total in the past 30 years. Check out this year’s top 10, beginning on page 106: Seven of those companies have been part of that exclusive club every year for the past decade. Walmart has been No. 1 for 13 years