SpaceX soars while X drops. Meanwhile 26 companies including Half-Life game maker Valve debut on Forbes’ newest annual list of the biggest private companies in the U.S.
By Andrea MurphyForbes Staff
Sporting a signature red Make America Great Again baseball cap, President-elect Donald Trump stood among the cheering crowd gathered last Tuesday in southern Texas to watch SpaceX successfully launch Starship–its sixth test of the new rocket developed to take people and cargo to the moon and beyond. Nearby was Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO and the world’s richest person, with whom Trump has been spending a lot of time since the November 5 election. Tapped by Trump to co-chair newly created advisory board Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk will continue to work alongside the president-elect. Such close ties with Trump bode well for SpaceX, which has already gotten nearly $20 billion in government contracts over the years from such clients as NASA and the Department of Defense and is valued at $210 billion by private investors.
Even before Musk befriended Trump, SpaceX had been on quite a run. Estimated 2023 revenue for the space company nearly doubled from the prior year to $8.7 billion. It was enough to rocket it up 85 spots to No. 60 this year, making it the biggest gainer on Forbes’ 2024 list of America’s Top Private Companies. A big factor boosting revenue: Starlink, the company’s fast-growing satellite business. The network, which uses some 6,000 satellites, provides internet access to remote locations around the world, including new markets in Africa and the Middle East. While the service is seen as particularly useful in more rural areas, there is interest in urban areas, too. Currently the service is sold out in areas around Seattle, Washington and Austin, Texas as well as part of Canada and Europe, per the company’s website. The Pentagon also has a contract with SpaceX to provide Starlink internet service in Ukraine, where it has been a useful tool for its troops to communicate and execute drone attacks amid the war with Russia. All of this has helped boost its number of subscribers to 4 million as of September, according to a Starlink post on Musk’s social media site X (formerly Twitter), up from 3 million in May. Meanwhile, in SpaceX’s primary business, it launched 96 rockets in 2023, more than any other year so far. In July Musk announced that SpaceX’s headquarters would move from California to Texas.
Not everything Musk touches has flourished. His other big private company, social media firm X, dropped to No. 185 from No. 149 last year, with estimated revenue of $3.4 billion for 2023, down from $4.4 billion the previous year. The company has struggled with falling advertising revenue since Musk took it private in a $44 billion deal in October 2022. It is one of 66 top private companies that have lower revenue versus last year.
Another one that lost ground was agribusiness giant Cargill. Despite a nearly 10% drop in revenue to $160 billion, due to low commodity prices and a global agricultural surplus–the first drop in five years-Cargill remains the nation’s biggest private company for the fourth year in a row. CEO Brian Sikes described the marketplace as “extremely challenging” in the company’s 2024 annual report.
The rest of the top 5 also hold onto their same spots from a year ago but a big acquisition announced by Mars might soon shake up the ranks. The candy and pet food giant said in August it was acquiring Kellanova (formerly Kellogg Co.), the $13.9 billion (revenue) snack and cereal company behind brands like Pringles, Pop-Tarts and Special K, for $35.9 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025, and could lift $50 billion (revenue) Mars a notch higher on next year’s list.
Altogether, 26 privately held companies make their debut on the list, which requires a minimum of $2 billion in revenue. The highest-ranked newcomer, at No. 62, is US LBM, a distributor of specialty building materials. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company has locations in 36 states. Most of its products are only available to professionals like national and regional home builders and commercial builders. Revenue has grown from $22 million in 2009, the year it was founded, to $8.2 billion in 2023, helped by acquisitions, including one in October.
Other newcomers include Valve Corporation (No. 139), the company behind the bestselling Half-Life videogame, with estimated revenue of $5 billion; restaurant supply firm Clark Associates (No, 174) and homebuilder Perry Homes (No. 242). Coca-Cola Beverages Florida joins the list at No. 264. Based in Tampa, the company produces and distributes Coca-Cola products across Florida and is run by founder Troy Taylor.
Sierra Nevada Corporation is one of four returnees to the list at No. 274–meaning it made the list in the past, fell off and has re-joined the ranks. The aerospace and defense company, run by billionaire couple Eren and Fatih Ozmen, announced in April that it had been awarded a $13 billion contract by the Air Force to build the next Doomsday planes.
Altogether, Forbes pinned down a record 275 companies, up from 258 last year. That’s the most since 2008, when the threshold to make the list was still $1 billion in revenue. Members this year include many well-known brands such as Johnson Wax parent SC Johnson, fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A and chicken giant Perdue Farms.
A total of 13 companies on the 2023 ranking dropped off this year because they were acquired, merged with another company or had falling revenues. SRS Distribution, ranked No. 55 last year with revenue of $9.6 billion, was acquired by Home Depot in June for a total enterprise value of $18.25 billion. Southeastern Grocers, parent of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores, was purchased in March by Aldi, the private German supermarket chain owned by billionaire members of the Albrecht family. Estimated revenue for another dropoff, Burris Logistics, a Delaware-based foodservice warehouse and distribution company, fell below $2 billion.
Methodology
Forbes’ list of the largest private companies in America includes U.S.-based firms with revenue of $2 billion or more in the most recent fiscal year. For most list members, that means calendar year 2023, though some companies have fiscal years that ended as recently as in October 2024.We exclude companies based outside the U.S.; companies that don’t pay income tax (like Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority); mutually owned companies (like State Farm Insurance); cooperatives (like Land O’Lakes); companies with fewer than 100 employees; and companies that are more than 50% owned by another public, private or non-U.S. company. We also leave out companies whose primary business is auto dealerships or real estate investment and/or management. We do include companies that are majority owned by private equity companies, such as Medline Industries. Whenever possible, our revenue figures for each company exclude sales of publicly traded subsidiaries. Our data sources include voluntary disclosures by companies, Securities and Exchange Commission filings for private companies with publicly traded debt and estimates from Forbes researchers and outside sources.
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