Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Sunday, Aug 24, 2025

Nearly Half of All Fortune 500 Companies Were Founded By Immigrants or Their Children, Study Finds

Nearly Half of All Fortune 500 Companies Were Founded By Immigrants or Their Children, Study Finds

A recent American economy study found that immigrants and the children of immigrants founded 45 percent of U.S. Fortune 500 companies, amassing $6.1 trillion in annual revenue last year.

The study, released Thursday from The New American Economy Research Fund, is the latest piece of research tying a significant portion of U.S. economic growth to migrant families. The pro-immigration group's data revealed there were 101 companies founded directly by foreign-born individuals and another 122 were created by the children of immigrants. U.S. Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants employ 13.5 million people and, on average, employ 11 percent more people than the median Fortune 500 corporation founded by a non-immigrant.

Several legacy immigrant-founded companies have become household names throughout much of the country, including Apple and Costco, in addition to more recent creations such as Intuit and Broadcom.

The revenue brought in by these companies on the New American Fortune 500 list is $1.1 trillion more than Japan's entire gross domestic product, $2.1 trillion more than Germany's GDP and nearly three times that of the United Kingdom's entire GDP. As the report notes, the 13.5 million people employed by these companies creates a population that would rank as the fifth largest state in the country.

More than 50 percent of the revenue pulled in by Fortune 500 companies in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Washington and New York states originated from companies founded by immigrants or their children. In Illinois alone, revenue brought in by immigrant-led Fortune 500 companies equaled 70 percent of the state's overall GDP.

Comparatively, companies founded by non-immigrants such as Walmart, Exxon and CVS amassed $7.6 trillion in 2018.

Last year, a Citigroup and Oxford University report found that two-thirds of U.S. GDP expansion since 2011 was "directly attributable to migration." The report reflected that the risks of migration draw in people who are inherently entrepreneurial-minded despite only making up about 14 percent of the overall U.S. population. The study noted immigrants were more than twice as likely to come up with a patented invention or to win an Academy Award or Nobel Prize.

The study does not differentiate between legal and illegal forms of entry into the United States.

"Their presence," wrote co-author Ian Goldin, a professor of globalization and development at Oxford, "usually is associated with higher wages, higher productivity, lower unemployment and higher female workforce participation."

The Citigroup/Oxford study showed that migrants had founded about 40 percent of businesses on the Fortune 500 list and about one-third of all the country's businesses founded since 2011.

As Axios noted Monday, several economics professors including Harvard University's George J. Borjas have detailed how immigrants receive government assistance at higher rates than people born in the U.S., saying immigration creates a $50 billion "fiscal hole" that falls on American taxpayers each year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
×