China unveils top 500 private enterprises for 2026

TIANJIN, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday released the 2026 list of the country's top 500 private enterprises, with 110 companies reporting operating revenue of over 100 billion yuan (about 14.82 billion U.S. dollars), underscoring robust growth in the country's private sector.

A seller promotes snacks via livestreaming at a health industry company in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 23, 2023. (Photo: Xinhua)

JD.com, Alibaba (China) Co., Ltd., and Hengli Group Co., Ltd. retained the top three positions, according to the 2026 China Top 500 Private Enterprises list unveiled by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) in Tianjin, north China.

This marks the 28th large-scale private enterprise survey conducted by the ACFIC. A total of 6,350 companies, each with operating revenue of over 1 billion yuan in 2025, participated in the survey this year. The top 500 companies by revenue make up the list.

The survey showed that in 2025, China's private enterprises continued to improve their innovation capacity, operating efficiency and core competitiveness, demonstrating an overall trend toward new and higher-quality development.

The top 500 private enterprises reported total operating revenue of 44.93 trillion yuan in 2025, up 4.35 percent from a year earlier. They also saw a combined net profit of 1.83 trillion yuan, with 17 companies each posting over 20 billion yuan in net profit.

Manufacturing companies on the top 500 private enterprises list recorded total operating revenue of 32.22 trillion yuan, up 8.73 percent year on year.

The top 500 are actively positioning themselves in strategic emerging and future industries. Of those that provided relevant data, 311 companies invested in 679 strategic emerging industry projects, and 82 launched 112 future industry projects.

On innovation, the top 500 companies that provided relevant data reported total R&D spending of 1.26 trillion yuan, with R&D investment averaging 2.95 percent of revenue, according to the survey.

In addition, the top 500 paid 1.3 trillion yuan in taxes last year, with 254 companies each paying over 1 billion yuan.