FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BALTIMORE, MD — November 7, 2026 — The largest Black-owned companies in America now generate more than $26 billion in combined annual revenue, and most Americans have never heard their names.
They build the technology backbone of the U.S. Army, staff Fortune 500 companies across 33 countries, manufacture the seats in millions of cars, feed corporate America through thousands of cafeterias, and run the largest media company built for Black audiences. Black Business Review ranks the five largest Black-owned companies in America by revenue.
No. 1: World Wide Technology — St. Louis, Missouri (~$20 Billion)
World Wide Technology (WWT) is not close to the rest of the field. Founded in 1990 by David Steward and Jim Kavanaugh in St. Louis, WWT generates roughly $20 billion in annual revenue, employs more than 14,000 people across 60-plus locations, and serves more than 80 of the Fortune 100. Forbes counts it among the 20 largest private companies in the United States — of any ownership.
Steward, who grew up in segregated Missouri and once had his car repossessed from the company parking lot, remains chairman and majority owner. In 2025, WWT closed an approximately $1.3 billion acquisition of Canadian technology firm Softchoice and won a $230 million contract to modernize the U.S. Army’s technology backbone. The technology solutions provider — cloud, cybersecurity, data centers, and artificial intelligence — is the largest Black-owned company in America, and it is not a close call.
No. 2: The ActOne Group — Torrance, California (~$3 Billion)
Janice Bryant Howroyd founded ActOne Group in 1978 with $1,500 — $900 of it a loan from her mother — a single phone line, and a Beverly Hills office. The company crossed $1 billion in revenue in 2011, making Howroyd the first Black woman in U.S. history to build a billion-dollar company.
ActOne now reports revenue in the $3 billion range, serves more than 17,000 clients in 33 countries, and employs roughly 2,600 people through brands including AppleOne staffing, AgileOne workforce solutions, and A-Check Global background screening. It remains the largest privately held, minority- and woman-owned workforce management company founded in the United States — and, as Black Business Review reported in its profile of Howroyd, the blueprint its founder still runs personally.
No. 3: Bridgewater Interiors — Detroit, Michigan (~$2 Billion)
Detroit’s Bridgewater Interiors builds automotive seating and interior systems for General Motors, Ford, Honda, and Stellantis, generating more than $2 billion in revenue across four plants in Michigan and Alabama with more than 2,000 employees. The company was established in 1998 as a joint venture between Johnson Controls (now Adient) and Epsilon, the holding company controlled by the late Ronald E. Hall Sr., whose family side holds the 51 percent majority stake.
Its first five-year GM contract was the largest ever awarded to a minority-owned company by an automaker. Ronald E. Hall Jr. succeeded his father as president and CEO in 2015, making Bridgewater a second-generation Black industrial company — a distinction almost none of its peers can claim.
No. 4: Thompson Hospitality — Reston, Virginia (~$925 Million)
Warren Thompson founded Thompson Hospitality in 1992 with a leveraged buyout of 31 Bob’s Big Boy restaurants from Marriott. Today it is the largest minority-owned food service and facilities management company in the United States: more than 6,000 employees, operations in 48 states, and revenue of $925 million in 2025, with $1 billion expected in 2026, according to Forbes.
A 1997 joint venture with Compass Group — the world’s largest food service company — runs more than 230 institutional accounts, including operations serving Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM. The restaurant division holds more than 70 locations across 15 brands, including Matchbox, Hen Quarter, Milk & Honey, and Wiseguy Pizza. Thompson still owns 100 percent of the company.
No. 5: Urban One — Silver Spring, Maryland (~$374 Million)
Urban One is the only public company on this list, and the only one most Americans know by name. Cathy Hughes founded it in 1980 as Radio One, buying Washington, D.C. station WOL-AM after being turned down for financing more than 30 times.
The company — renamed Urban One in 2017 and run today by Hughes and her son, CEO Alfred C. Liggins III — operates 76 broadcast stations in 13 of the largest Black radio markets, TV One (reaching more than 30 million households), Reach Media syndication, and a growing digital division. Revenue was $374 million in 2025, down from $450 million in 2024 as the broader radio industry contracts — a reminder that even the giants on this list operate in markets that do not stand still.
What the List Proves: The Largest Black-Owned Companies in America
Add the five largest Black-owned companies in America together and the combined revenue tops $26 billion, with more than 24,000 employees. None of these companies is a startup story. The youngest, Bridgewater, is 27 years old; the oldest, Urban One, is 46. They were built in technology, staffing, manufacturing, food service, and media — the unglamorous infrastructure of the American economy — and they were built to last.
That durability, more than any single revenue figure, is the story. As this week’s election coverage in Baltimore showed, Black economic power is also political power — and these five companies are its balance sheet.
Black Business Review covers Black-owned business at every scale, from first-time founders to the billion-dollar companies on this list. Businesses that want to reach that audience can learn more about features and sponsorships at blackbusinessreview.net.
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