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.

- By Alyson Shontell

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.