Foreword

Alyson Shontell

Editor-in-Chief

Last week I caught up with a top angel investor, Outlander.VC’s Paige Craig, and his partner in both work and life, Leura.

Paige has put early money into more than a dozen billion-dollar startups, including Airbnb (No. 382), Lyft (No. 22), and most recently Scale AI, which he found before the startup was even called Scale AI and had a valuation of just $3 million (in case you’re keeping track, Meta just paid $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the company, netting a huge return for Craig).

I asked him and Leura how they pick winning founders early. The pair identified 38 traits they screen for, including one Craig noticed immediately in Scale AI cofounder Lucy Gao: being “obsessive.”

If you can focus all your energy on your startup’s mission without getting easily distracted or discouraged, it’s a big green flag, they say.

At Fortune, we have an obsession of our own: covering the largest, most successful companies globally, and focusing on how leaders are growing—or blowing—the businesses. We’ve historically done that through the Fortune 500, which for 71 years has been the gold standard ranking of the highest revenue-generating companies in the U.S.

More recently, we’ve expanded our purview to rank the largest companies in other parts of the world. On Tuesday, we unveiled the Fortune Southeast Asia 500. This group of companies is much smaller than the U.S. cohort, producing $1.8 trillion in total revenue last year versus the $1.8 trillion in total profits produced by the Fortune 500. But there are a few key takeaways from the data.

“The Southeast Asia 500 is a snapshot of an economic region on the move, ready to take advantage of booming industries like AI and EVs,” Fortune Asia editor Nicholas Gordon writes. “Energy dominates the list, generating a third of the list’s total revenue. Finance, too, plays a key role: Singapore’s ‘Big Three’ banks are the list’s most profitable companies. Tech has a smaller presence on the list: Just one internet company, Sea (No. 15), sits in the top 20.”

Explore the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 here, and for more must-reads from our newsroom, check out the stories below.

Deals & Developments

The European Court of Justice’s advocate general recommended dismissing an appeal from Google (subsidiary of Alphabet, No. 7) against a €4 billion ($4.7 billion) antitrust fine on June 19. The fine was originally imposed by the EU in 2018 after regulators found Google was abusing the dominance of the Android operating system to stifle competition and limit consumer choice. This non-binding opinion, which often influences the court’s final decision, supports upholding the penalty. Google expressed disappointment, arguing the decision could harm investment and users, and the court will issue its final judgment at a later date.
Home Depot (No. 24) made an offer to acquire GMS, a building-products distributor, potentially triggering a bidding war with QXO (No. 421), which earlier this week made a $5 billion offer for GMS, Bloomberg reported. The exact value of Home Depot’s bid has not been disclosed, but both companies seek to expand their presence in the construction supply market by harnessing GMS’s technology. GMS ranks No. 612 on the Fortune 1000.
Eli Lilly (No. 100) agreed to acquire Verve Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing gene-editing therapeutics aimed at fighting cardiovascular disease, for approximately $1.3 billion.

Overheard

“We don’t sell Cheerios in the morning and then think about sustainability in the afternoon.”

—General Mills (No. 216) CEO Jeff Harmening regarding his company’s focus on regenerative agriculture, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and recycling.

On earnings calls:

Kroger (No. 27) Chairman and Interim CEO Ron Sargent maintained that “customers continue to spend cautiously in an uncertain economic environment,” adding that customers are choosing to eat at home more often as a result. Sargent also noted that a search committee is actively working to find a new CEO following the abrupt resignation of Rodney McMullen in March, but has no updates at this time. Overall, the company reported $45.1 billion in Q1 revenue (compared to $45.3 billion for the same period last year) and raised its full-year identical sales (excluding fuel) forecast to a range of 2.25% to 3.25%.
Lennar (No. 129) co-CEO Stuart Miller noted that “the housing market right now is driven by supply and demand that can’t be properly aligned” and warned that the company doesn’t expect interest rates to fall anytime soon. With local and state government leaders rallying about housing crises across the country, according to Miller, the homebuilding company is choosing to keep production steady and lower its cost structures instead of protecting its margins in the short-term. Overall, Lennar reported net earnings of $477 million in Q2, a drop from $954 million from the previous year.
Jabil (No. 148) predicted that the company’s AI-related revenue will reach around $8.5 billion this fiscal year, representing a 50% year-over-year increase. Just prior to its earnings call, the company also announced that it is building a new site in the Southeastern U.S. “to help fulfill the ongoing increase in AI data center infrastructure demand.” Overall, Jabil reported $7.8 billion in Q3 net revenue, a 16% year-over-year increase.
Carmax (No. 151) reported revenue of $7.55 billion, up 6% from the same period last year. The revenue increase was led in part by the company’s used vehicle sales, which saw the biggest increase this quarter since 2021.
Darden Restaurants (No. 390) beat Wall Street expectations with $3.27 billion in total sales in Q4, a 10.6% increase from Q4 of last year. CEO Rick Cardenas noted that even though consumer spending is down overall, “our consumers want to go out and spend their hard-earned money.”

Earnings to watch next week: Commercial Metals (No. 476) on June 23; TD Synnex (No. 73) and FedEx (No. 49) on June 24; Micron Technology (No. 170) and General Mills (No. 216) on June 25; and Nike (No. 90) and Concentrix (No. 426) on June 26.

See all recent coverage of Fortune 500 earnings calls.

Looking Ahead