Global Times | Top 500 enterprises list highlights steady growth, innovation
The China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and the China Enterprise Directors Association on Monday released the 2025 list of the top 500 Chinese enterprises. The total assets of these enterprises reached 460.85 trillion yuan ($64.68 trillion) last year, an increase of 7.46 percent year-on-year, showing steady growth.
According to the list, the top five enterprises are State Grid Corp of China, China National Petroleum Corp, China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group), China State Construction Engineering Corp, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
The number of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises included in the list remained roughly balanced, at 251 and 249 respectively. A total of 15 enterprises achieved annual operating revenue exceeding 1 trillion yuan, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The total operating revenue of the 2025 top 500 Chinese enterprises reached 110.15 trillion yuan. The threshold for entry into the list rose for the 23rd consecutive year, reaching 47.96 billion yuan, an increase of 579 million yuan. The total net profit attributable to the parent companies stood at 4.71 trillion yuan, up 4.39 percent, CCTV News reported.
In addition, the number of enterprises with annual revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan grew significantly. Among the 500 enterprises, 267 achieved operating revenue of more than 100 billion yuan, an increase of 14 compared with the previous year, accounting for 53.4 percent of the list, said the report.
Notably, the top 500 enterprises invested a total of 1.73 trillion yuan in research and development (R&D), with R&D intensity reaching a new high of 1.95 percent, marking eight consecutive years of growth. Among the top 10 enterprises in R&D intensity, five were from the communication equipment manufacturing industry, and eight were private enterprises, according to CCTV News.
China's top 500 enterprises have adhered to innovation-driven development and played a key leading role in promoting industrial structure optimization and upgrading, as well as improving the quality of economic development, said Zhu Hongren, Party chief of the CEC.
In particular, the top 500 enterprises have demonstrated strong innovation vitality in strategic emerging industries such as new-energy vehicles, communication equipment manufacturing, and information technology services, said Zhu.