What Are Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in 2026?

This article discusses the 2026 list of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies, as well as how you can make your company a standout in your industry.

Every year, Fortune puts out its list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. In 2026, these are the Top 10:

1. Apple
2. Microsoft
3. Amazon
4. NVIDIA
5. JPMorgan Chase
6. Berkshire Hathaway
7. Costco Wholesale
8. Alphabet
9. Walmart
10. American Express

Here’s the rest of the Top 50 list:

Thousands of analysts, directors and executives are polled about corporate reputation to determine the final list. According to partner Korn Ferry, which Fortune collaborates with for the list, poll participant demographics include the following:

Which Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies Made It Into the Top?

This year marks Fortune’s 29th edition of the list, and Apple is once again ranked first.

Here are a few more notable takeaways from the list:

• Apple continues to be the most admired company on the Fortune list, followed closely by the rest of the top 5: Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia and JPMorgan Chase.
• Nvidia has now been in the top 5 for two years — 2025 was its first inclusion in the top 5 spots. In 2024, the company was ranked No. 10, and in 2023, it was ranked No. 45.
• Other notable brands that have a place in the Top 50 include BMW, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Netflix and Starbucks.

While NetReputation did not make Fortune’s rankings in 2026, it was one of Fortune’s 50 Best Workplaces in Advertising and Marketing in 2022, and we’ve received other accolades as well.

What Attributes Do the Top Companies Have?

On top of growing into a position of enormous influence and power, each of Fortune’s top-ranking companies shows a lot of stability in its industry.

Management consulting firm Korn Ferry, which has partnered with the Fortune company since 1997 to select the World’s Most Admired Companies list, uses nine corporate reputation attributes to rank companies. Among them, “soundness of financial position” is deemed the most important, even higher than product and management quality.

According to Kern Ferry, additional admired companies’ ranking qualities that help a brand become one of the World’s Most Admired Companies in its industry include:

• Attracting and retaining talent
• Community and environmental responsibility
• Conducting business globally in an effective and competitive manner
• Innovation
• Long-term investment value
• Use of corporate assets

It’s impossible for brands to achieve such high industry rankings without solid reputations behind them. Whether your goal is to increase revenue, showcase your services to your audience, or one day claim your place on the Most Admired list, you’ll need a positive online reputation to support you.

Contact our ORM experts today at 800-200-3000 to discuss your business goals and start planning your ORM strategy.

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Final Thoughts About the World’s Most Admired Companies

If your goal is to become part of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies list, like The Walt Disney Company, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, or any others that make it into the top of the companies ranked by Fortune, you’ll need to be a respected leader in your industry.

Inc., a leading American business magazine, has ranked NetReputation in various honors:

According to Inc., the regionals select companies that are “making an outsized impact” in the area, while the Inc. 5000 list ranks the fastest-growing private U.S. companies.

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Do you need help developing an online reputation management strategy to reach your goals, like becoming one of the World’s Most Admired Companies? Find the best way to position yourself for the challenging global business environment. Contact us today at 800-200-3000 or by filling out the contact form below to learn more.