Cupertino, California based Apple climbed 11 spots in the Fortune 500 to No. 6 with annual revenue exceeding $156 billion. The tech giant is now the official leader of all tech companies. The new ranking is Apple’s highest ever and the company displaced troubled PC maker Hewlett Packard as the No. 1 tech company on the prestigious list.
Companies are ranked by Fortune by the revenue generated annually, with the latest listed released Monday. The revenue cut off is at $4.8 billion. That low mark was easily surpassed by Apple, with its total reaching $156.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended last September 30. Ahead of Apple in 5th place was Berkshire Hathaway, in 4th place Phillips 66, in 3rd place Chevron, in 2nd Exxon Mobile and returning to the No. 1 spot after a short absence Wal-Mart.
Apple has seen its share price plummet since September, but moved up from the No. 17 spot with a revenue increase of more than 47%. That helped the company race past Hewlett Packard, which fell from the No. 10 spot to the No. 15 spot with a drop in revenue of 5%.
Other technology companies of note included IBM, which finished at No. 20, Microsoft that came in at No. 35, Amazon finishing at No. 49 and Dell Computers at No. 51. Search giant Google was No. 55, while Cisco finished at No. 60 and Oracle at No. 80.
IBM fell one spot, Microsoft jumped up two and Amazon was up seven, while Dell dropped an equal number of spots.
