Biggest manufacturing companies in the US: the 30 largest by revenue

This list is for anyone who sells to manufacturers (equipment, automation, MRO supplies, software, logistics, staffing, engineering services) and for analysts who need the largest manufacturers with a source for each figure. It ranks US-headquartered public companies whose SEC industry code (SIC) is in the manufacturing range, 2000 to 3999, by total revenue for their latest fiscal year as reported in their 10-K. Headquarters and headcount come from the same filing. For a shorter overview with a guide to building a list of smaller manufacturers, see top manufacturing companies.

The 30 biggest US manufacturing companies

Revenue is total revenue or net sales as reported in each company's latest 10-K. Headquarters are each company's business address on its SEC filings. Employees are from the same filing; General Motors' figure is our sum of about 88,000 hourly and 68,000 salaried employees, and J&J's is employees (its full-time-equivalent count is 138,200). IBM's 2025 annual report doesn't state a total headcount.

General Dynamics ($52.55 billion) is 31st. ConocoPhillips is registered with the SEC under petroleum refining and reported $58.94 billion, but its 10-K describes it as an independent exploration and production company, so we leave it out. Companies headquartered abroad that file with the SEC, such as Medtronic, Linde and Eaton, are also excluded.

The list by sector

Revenue isn't the same as production. Refiners' revenue moves with fuel prices, and much of what Apple and NVIDIA sell is built by contract manufacturers, which is why IndustryWeek, for one, leaves companies that outsource production out of its manufacturer rankings. If you sell plant equipment or services, the employee column and the company's list of plants in its 10-K (Item 2, "Properties") tell you more than revenue does.

How big manufacturers are, by the numbers

The Census Bureau's Statistics of US Businesses counts manufacturing firms by their total US employment, with their plants (establishments) and workers in manufacturing:

Statistics of US Businesses 2022 (released April 2025). The 1,000 to 9,999 and 500 to 999 rows are our sums of the Census size classes in those ranges. Counts cover establishments with paid employees.

The 153 largest manufacturers average about 37 US plants each, with about 355 workers per plant. The middle of the market is bigger than it looks: 2,028 firms with 1,000 to 9,999 employees run 19,627 plants and employ more people than the 334 largest firms combined.

How this list is built

• What's counted: total revenue or net sales for each company's latest fiscal year, as reported in its 10-K, including services and software it sells alongside products.
• Who's counted: US-headquartered, SEC-registered companies whose SIC code, assigned by the SEC from their main business, is between 2000 and 3999. That is why Apple and NVIDIA count and Amazon doesn't. We exclude ConocoPhillips for the reason above.
• What's left out: privately held manufacturers, which don't publish results, and foreign-headquartered companies such as Toyota or Siemens, even where they run US plants. Fortune, Forbes and IndustryWeek publish other rankings; we didn't use them.

Where the buying happens at a large manufacturer

General guidance, informed by the filings.

• Plants. Plant managers, maintenance and reliability leaders, and plant engineering buy equipment, spare parts, maintenance services and automation, often from an approved supplier list. With 37 US plants on average, the largest manufacturers buy plant by plant even when a contract is signed centrally.
• Corporate procurement and sourcing. Direct materials and components are bought by category managers on multi-year contracts, with supplier qualification, quality audits and long payment terms.
• Engineering and R&D. Product engineering buys design software, testing, prototyping and contract engineering. Eli Lilly, for example, says about 12,000 of its roughly 50,000 employees work in research and development.
• Operations technology and IT. Plant networks, industrial cybersecurity and manufacturing software are often owned jointly by IT and operations, so expect two sponsors.

Worked example: an industrial cybersecurity vendor sizes the market

Illustrative example. The vendor and its pricing are fictional; the firm and plant counts come from Statistics of US Businesses 2022.

The seller: Faultline (faultline.example) sells plant-network security monitoring at an illustrative $24,000 per plant per year.

The arithmetic. The 153 largest manufacturers run 5,595 US plants. If every plant bought, that would be $134.3 million a year (5,595 × $24,000). The next tier, 2,028 firms with 1,000 to 9,999 employees, runs 19,627 plants, worth $471.0 million at the same price (19,627 × $24,000). The mid-size tier is the larger market and usually has shorter sales cycles.

The plan.

1. Pick one sector, such as pharmaceuticals, where plant security is regulated and the five largest companies are in the table above.
2. Find the plants. Most 10-Ks describe principal manufacturing sites under Item 2, Properties. Start with the largest US sites.
3. Find two sponsors per company: the head of operations technology or manufacturing IT, and a plant leader willing to run a pilot.
4. Then move to the mid-size tier in the same sector, where one plant leader often owns the decision.

Mapping the plants, the operations technology leads and what's changed at each is the slow part. Bebop researches each account in a list like this and writes a playbook for each.

Next step: to find mid-size manufacturers by industry code and state, start with the list of manufacturing companies guide and the NAICS codes for your sector.