What are America’s best companies? These WA businesses made top 20, Forbes says
Washington state has some of the best businesses in the United States — including the No. 2 company in the nation.
That’s according to Forbes, which recently released its 2026 list of America’s Best Companies.
The Evergreen State is well represented on the list, which includes 500 companies with headquarters in the United States.
To be the best, “You must conduct an orchestra, keeping every section on pace and on key,” Forbes said.
That means strong customer ratings, fiscal performance and employee satisfaction, according to the publication.
It also means “hitting a wide variety of other notes: security, fantastic coverage in the media, consistency of the performers and the products they create,” Forbes said in a Wednesday, Nov. 19, article.
Here’s which Washington companies made the cut:
Which Washington companies made Forbes Top 20?
Four companies with headquarters in Washington state made the upper echelon of Forbes’ best companies ranking.
Amazon placed at No. 2, trailing only Nebraska-based company Berkshire Hathaway.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and has grown to more than 1.5 million employees, according to Forbes.
In 2024, the Seattle-based retail and wholesale giant brought in more than $590 billion in revenue, Forbes said.
The company “soared from No. 169 last year to this year’s No. 2” due to financial results in recent years, customer confidence and improved employee satisfaction, Forbes said.
According to Forbes, three other companies with headquarters in the Evergreen State also cracked the top 20, including Microsoft, the Redmond-based software and tech services company.
Microsoft came in at No. 16 on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Companies.
The Seattle-based Alaska Air Group was No. 19, while Costco Wholesale in Issaquah landed at No. 20.
What other Washington companies made the list?
Nine other companies with headquarters in Washington state made Forbes’ list of America’s best companies:
- No. 53: REI in Kent
- No. 66: Nordstrom in Seattle
- No. 118: T-Mobile US in Bellevue
- No. 242: Starbucks in Seattle
- No. 424: Saltchuk in Seattle
- No. 454: Avanade in Seattle
- No. 466: Slalom Consulting in Seattle
- No. 493: Weyerhaeuser in Seattle
- No. 497: Merrill Gardens in Seattle
What are America’s Best Companies? See Forbes list
Here are the Top 10 best companies in America for 2026, according to Forbes:
- 1. Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska
- 2. Amazon in Seattle, Washington
- 3. Royal Caribbean Group in Miami, Florida
- 4. Morgan Stanley in New York, New York
- 5. Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, Georgia
- 6. NVIDIA in Santa Clara, California
- 7. Southwest Airlines in Dallas, Texas
- 8. Apple in Cupertino, California
- 9. JPMorganChase in New York, New York
- 10. Publix Super Markets in Lakeland, Florida
How did Forbes come up with its ranking?
Forbes said it “analyzed more than 100 metrics across 11 categories” — ranging from financial performance to cybersecurity, ratings by employee and sentiment from customers — in order to rank America’s top businesses.
Public and private companies that have headquarters in the United States and more than 7,000 U.S. workers were eligible for inclusion, Forbes said.
“Some types of companies were excluded from consideration, such as colleges and school districts, government offices and charitable organizations,” Forbes said.
Data came from sources such as Glassdoor, HundredX, Crunchbase, SecurityScorecard and SignalAI, Forbes said.
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