Manufacturing Revenue, Income Hold Steady: 2026 IndustryWeek U.S. 500
We're more than midway through 2026 and there are increasing signs that the U.S. manufacturing sector, after bumping along since the shock of 2020, is showing signs of a sustained upturn. The results of the 2026 IndustryWeek U.S. 500 list of the largest U.S. public manufacturing companies based on revenue show a definite performance improvement from the previous year:
- Revenues: $6.33 trillion, up 3.49% from 2024
- Net income: $506 billion, up 6.78% from 2024
That topline revenue number may look familiar. According to BLS data, the U.S. annual inflation rate for 2025 closed at 2.7%, with energy prices increasing by 2.3% and food increasing by 3.1% (that number grows to 4.1% for food away from home).
In sum, manufacturing data showed that actual physical output and factory employment remained relatively flat, and that revenue growth was driven primarily by price increases and/or cost-pass-throughs (including $264 billion in tariffs) rather than expanding physical sales volume. Given that companies have already been refunded more than $100 billion in unlawful tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), it will be interesting to see how the refunds will impacts next year's IW 500 list.
Taking the top five revenue-generating sectors in order:
How We Pick the IW U.S. 500
Data analytics can only take you so far. Sometimes, you need old-fashioned human intelligence. For the third consecutive year, IndustryWeek has taken a labor-intensive approach to determine which companies to include and exclude from our tally of the largest publicly traded U.S. manufacturing companies.
First, we use S&P data to sort companies by who claims to be a manufacturer using industry codes and other self-reported metrics. Then, we sort the top 1,000 or so companies based on their most recent annual revenues (for most companies, 2025, but some oddballs are already done with fiscal 2026). After that, the human sorting begins.
We separate the list into five pieces and hand each one to an IndustryWeek editor to research. Going through annual reports and other financial reports, we look for key phrases such as “rely on manufacturing partners” for many consumer products companies or “fabless” techniques for chip makers. We eliminate companies that outsource production, such as Apple, Nvidia, Nike and even a handful of food companies. What remains are companies that make most or all of their own products.
Oil & Energy
- Sales: $1.1 trillion, down 4.9%
- Earnings: $63 billion, down 13.9%
Even though energy companies take five of the top 10 spots on this year’s IW 500 list, the trends observed in 2024 continued into 2025. Sales were down 4.9% in 2025, continuing from a 2.7% drop last year; and revenues were down 13.9%, after a drop of 28.9% last year.
The continued cool-off can mostly be attributed to the global oil supply exceeding overall demand in 2025, with production growth steadily outpacing economic activity. In addition, sector performance is fairly even across companies both large and small; even after separating out the top five oil & energy companies from the list, the performance of the remaining companies is a sales drop of 3.0% and a revenue drop of 17.8%.
Automotive
- Sales: $567 billion, down 0.3%
- Earnings: -$6.2 billion, down 144.5%
It’s a familiar story by now, but the numbers serve to remind everyone just how costly it was this past year for automakers (especially Ford, GM, and Tesla) to adjust their EV strategies to meet actual market demand. The impact of these pivots was felt most deeply by Ford, which took an income loss in 2025 of more than $8 billion, including a net loss of $11.1 billion specifically in Q4 as the company adjusted its EV strategy to introduce fewer pure electric vehicles, more hybrids, and more lower-cost models. (Ford's $8 billion write-down accounted for 40% of the earnings decline by IW 500 automotive companies.) It remains to be seen if consumers will ever embrace pure electric vehicles in the larger vehicle form factors (i.e. trucks and SUVs) that remain the most popular.
Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology
- Sales: $559.1 billion, up 7.4%
- Earnings: $110.2 billion, up 99.8%
I want to say one word to you, just one word: GLP-1. Eli Lilly posted an astonishing 44.7% sales growth in 2025, primarily attributable to extreme consumer demand for their Mounjaro (weight-loss) and Zepbound (diabetes) medications. Also, Johnson & Johnson maintained their lead position among pharma and biotech companies, posting a 6.1% sales increase via continued demand for oncology and immunology medicines like Darzalex, Tremfya, and Stelara. It also is striking to note that Moderna posted a sales drop of 40.0% last year and a negative net income for the second straight year, due to reduced global demand for their COVID-19 vaccine.
Food and Beverage
- Sales: $465.8 billion, up 3.1%
- Earnings: $30.3 billion, down 32.5%
One look at the net income statements of IW 500 food & beverage companies tells you all you need to know about shifting consumer tastes in 2025, even with higher pricing at the heart of sales & revenue:
- Coca-Cola: +23.3%
- Keurig Dr. Pepper: +44.3%
- PepsiCo: -14.0%
- Mondelez International: -46.8%
- Hershey Company: -60.2%
The story to watch in 2026 will be Kraft Heinz, which has paused the planned separation of their business as they continue to battle declining volumes in North America. This pause was revealed in February by new CEO Steve Cahillane, after the company posted a sales drop of 3.5% and reported a massive net loss of $5.85 billion, primarily driven by $9.3 billion in non-cash impairment charges (i.e., write-downs). In addition, consumers continue to think carefully about their processed food & beverage purchases, given the popularity of GLP-1 drugs plus persistent inflation.
Aerospace and Defense
- Sales: $498.9 billion, up 12.6%
- Earnings: $41.3 billion, up 91.5%
The story of this sector is steady growth in both sales and profitability in 2025, led by the remarkable recovery of Boeing which posted a 34.5% increase in sales, and is back in the black in terms of net income. Last year saw the company outsell Airbus for the first time since 2018, delivering 600 commercial airplanes and obtaining 1,173 net orders, and recovering from a six-week machinists strike in 2024 that crippled profitability that year. The 2025 success story at General Electric is in some ways tied to the production bottlenecks and sluggish sales of 2023/2024; GE was able to take advantage of airlines keeping their existing fleets flying longer and grow their aftermarket maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services, generating increases in sales of 18.5% and in net income of 32.8%.
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About the Author
Thomas Wilk
Editor-in-Chief
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wilkt
Bio: Thomas Wilk joined IndustryWeek as editor in chief in May 2026, following nearly 12 years as chief editor for Plant Services. Previously, Wilk was content strategist / mobile media manager at Panduit. Prior to Panduit, Tom was lead editor for Battelle Memorial Institute's Environmental Restoration team, and taught business and technical writing at Ohio State University for eight years. Tom holds a BA from the University of Illinois and an MA from Ohio State University.
Jill Jusko
Bio: Jill Jusko is executive editor for IndustryWeek. She has been writing about manufacturing operations leadership for more than 20 years. Her coverage spotlights companies that are in pursuit of world-class results in quality, productivity, cost and other benchmarks by implementing the latest continuous improvement and lean/Six-Sigma strategies. Jill also coordinates IndustryWeek’s Best Plants Awards Program, which annually salutes the leading manufacturing facilities in North America.
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