Some of the largest companies and best known brands in the United States were founded by immigrants. A study conducted by the Partnership for a New American Economy concluded that 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Here we have profiled 29 of these immigrant entrepreneurs. They are inventors, financiers, pioneers and philanthropists. Today, the companies they founded collectively produce more than $1.1 trillion in annual revenue. Click on a name or logo to learn more about these impressive business leaders.
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Russia
Alphabet (Google)
Ranked 8 in the 2023 Fortune 500
In 2018, Forbes named Sergey Brin the 35th most powerful person in the world.
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Scotland
AT&T and Verizon
Ranked 13 and 23 in the 2022 Fortune 500
Alexander Graham Bell is recognized as the inventor of the telephone and the man responsible for spawning a global telecommunications industry.
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Germany
Comcast
Ranked 29 in the 2023 Fortune 500
A refugee from Nazi Germany and an orphan, Daniel Aaron helped Comcast become the largest cable company in the United States
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Germany
Pfizer Inc.
Ranked 38 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Pfizer’s first product was an almond-toffee-flavored anti-parasitic.
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England
Procter & Gamble
Ranked 51 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Procter and Gamble were brothers-in-law married to a pair of sisters. They might never have met if fate had not intervened.
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Ireland
Procter & Gamble
Ranked 51 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Procter and Gamble were brothers-in-law married to a pair of sisters. They might never have met if fate had not intervened.
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England
General Electric
Ranked 52 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Elihu Thomson was a multifaceted scientist, inventor and engineer who held nearly 700 patents.
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Russia
TJX Companies, Inc.
Ranked 87 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Two generations of Feldbergs created the business that became TJX and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
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Greece
Thermo Fischer Scientific
Ranked 97 in 2023 Fortune 500
Thermo Electron Corporation was started in 1956 with $50,000. It became Thermo Fischer Scientific and had revenues of $20.9 billion in 2017.
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England
Capital One Financial
Ranked 106 in the 2023 Fortune 500
After obtaining an MBA in his country of origin, Nigel Morris moved to the United States because it “just seemed to be where the action was.”
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Switzerland
Honeywell International
Ranked 115 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Albert Butz invented the thermostat, which created a whole new industry.
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Ukraine
PayPal
Ranked 148 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Levchin sought asylum in the United States from the Soviet-controlled Ukraine.
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Taiwan
NVIDIA Corporation
Ranked 152 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Huang started out cleaning toilets in the dorm of his school for “difficult children.”
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Canada
Kraft Heinz
Ranked 153 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Kraft Foods started as a one-man business selling cheese with a horse and wagon.
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Canada
International Paper
Ranked 184 the 2023 Fortune 500
Under Hugh Chisholm’s leadership, International Paper controlled 60 percent of the American newsprint market.
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Scotland
TIAA and United States Steel
Ranked 412 and 186 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Andrew Carnegie’s steel company produced more metal than all of Great Britain in 1900.
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Ireland
BNY Mellon
Ranked 201 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Mellon rejected a life on the farm in favor of law and business.
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Scotland
Emerson
Ranked 206 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Emerson sold the first electric fans in America, invented by two orphans from Scotland.
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India
Cognizant
Ranked 208 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Francisco D’Souza studied in seven schools around the world in Panama, Zaire, New Delhi, New York, Trinidad, Hong Kong and Pittsburgh.
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Poland
Kohl’s
Ranked 226 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Maxwell Kohl started his entrepreneurial career with a chain of grocery stores.
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Scotland
PPG Industries
Ranked 232 in the 2023 Fortune 500
John Pitcairn Jr. dropped out of school at age 14 and went on to create an industrial giant, PPG Industries.
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France
DuPont de Nemours
Ranked 250 in the 2023 Fortune 500
DuPont was an early “transnational” business relying on knowledge, equipment and capital raised in France.
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Sweden
Nordstrom
Ranked 267 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Nordstrom came to the United States with just $5.00, amassed $13,000 within two years and was able to open his first store.
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Germany
Weyerhaeuser
Ranked 385 in the 2023 Fortune 500
The New York Times credited Weyerhäuser’s incredible success to “German regularity, caution, thrift, industry and perseverance.”
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Switzerland
Biogen
Ranked 386 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Weissmann is a preeminent businessman and scientist. He was the first to clone alpha-interferon genes and made breakthroughs in treating several diseases.
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England
Biogen
Ranked 386 in the 2023 Fortune 500
Royston is a doctor with business savvy and even won a Tony award.
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France
eBay
Ranked 393 in the 2023 Fortune 500
The first item sold on eBay was Omidyar’s broken laser pointer.