Indonesia Returns to the Fortune Global 500, But Is That Really the Win We Think It Is?
PLN and Pertamina are on the Fortune Global 500. But what does their presence (and others’ absence) really tell us about Indonesia’s economy?
Indonesia has made headlines once again by placing two companies on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2025. At first glance, this seems like a moment of national pride. A milestone. Proof that Indonesia is taking its seat at the table of global business heavyweights.
But scratch the surface, and the story feels less like a breakthrough and more like a technicality.
The two companies are:
PT Pertamina (Persero) (#171): The familiar face. A state-owned oil and gas company that’s long surfed the waves of global energy markets.
PT PLN (Persero) (#469): The country’s monopoly power provider, rejoining the list after nearly a decade of absence.
Both are massive, yes. But they are also public-sector giants, operating in protected markets, with business models that depend more on national demand and government policy than on innovation, competition, or global reach.
So while the ranking is factual, the celebration might be premature. It raises an important question: are we confusing size with strength, and domestic saturation with global relevance? The numbers are large. But do they actually signal global competitiveness?
The Global 500: A Size Chart, Not a Report Card
The Fortune Global 500 is not a list of the most innovative companies. It doesn’t reflect who’s dominating global markets, who’s making the most money, or who’s changing the way the world works. It’s not a stock index, a profitability ranking, or a badge of operational excellence.
It’s a spreadsheet.
Specifically, it is a ranked list of the 500 companies with the highest total revenue in U.S. dollars over the past fiscal year. Nothing more, nothing less. If your company sold a massive volume of anything and your top line hits the cutoff, you’re in.
That’s why the list includes not just Apple, Amazon, or Samsung Electronics, but also companies like State Grid Corporation of China, industrial trading houses in Japan, and obscure commodities suppliers you’ve never seen advertised; because they don’t need to. Their customers aren’t people. Their scale is the story.
This is how PLN, Indonesia’s state electricity provider, made the cut. It didn’t innovate its way in. It simply served 280 million people with a product they legally cannot avoid using, while receiving substantial payments from the state to do so.
There’s nothing illegitimate about that. But it’s worth noting what the list rewards. Companies with strong margins, global footprints, or game-changing products often miss out simply because they don’t do massive volume. In a strange way, being too efficient or focused can be disqualifying.
So while inclusion on the list reflects economic scale, it doesn’t necessarily reflect economic competitiveness. It’s a ranking that measures how loud your engine is rather than how far you're actually going.
Pertamina and PLN: Big, But Not Borderless
Now that Indonesia’s two Global 500 entrants have been named, it’s worth asking: what kind of "global" are we talking about?
Pertamina
Rank: #171
Revenue: ~$81 billion (2024)
Nature: Oil and gas heavyweight with overseas exposure
Pertamina is the more internationally visible of the two. It has upstream and downstream operations, does joint ventures abroad, and participates in cross-border trade. It’s the kind of company that, on paper, fits the Global 500 mold: large, strategic, and engaged in industries that matter globally.
But even that comes with a caveat. Pertamina’s position on the list has always been tied less to international ambition and more to global oil prices. It climbs the rankings when Brent is booming and slips when the market cools. Its fortunes are yoked more to commodity cycles than to deliberate expansion strategy. In that sense, Pertamina reflects global trends more than it drives them.
PLN
Rank: #469
Revenue: ~$34.4 billion (2024)
Nature: State electricity monopoly, 100% domestic
PLN rejoined the list after nearly a decade away. Its revenue rose to a record $34.4 billion in 2024, fueled by population growth, electricity demand (+6.17%), tariff changes, and significant state compensation (Rp 177 trillion). But this isn’t a story of market conquest or operational reinvention. PLN didn’t expand abroad or launch new products. It provided electricity to Indonesians, in a market where it has no competitor.
That is a success in scale, but it's public service on an industrial scale, not a multinational breakthrough.
Both companies are large. But when it comes to global presence, one is reactive and the other is rooted. Their size tells us they are important but not necessarily that they are competitive beyond Indonesia’s borders. And that makes their presence on a list called “Global” feel both technically accurate and strategically limited.
So Where Are the Others?
Indonesia is not short on ambitious companies. Its private sector is full of banks, telcos, tech startups, logistics platforms, consumer brands and increasingly digital-first enterprises. Some are profitable, some are flashy, and some are even both. The consumer market is also large and dynamic. In many ways, the ingredients for more representation on the Global 500 are all there.
Yet still, only two companies make the cut... and both are state-owned.
Why? Because Fortune is not ranking innovation, operational excellence, or return on equity. It is ranking total revenue. That’s it.
Companies like PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or Telkom Indonesia are incredibly successful by most measures. BRI, for instance, has long been a model of financial inclusion and profitability. Telkom dominates telecommunications in a country of hundreds of millions. But their top-line numbers don’t meet the Fortune threshold, which hovers around 30 to 35 billion U.S. dollars annually.
The same goes for rising names in tech and consumer goods. Platforms like GoTo Group, or brands with massive local penetration, are building reach and relevance. But they are either too young, too lean, or too focused to make the list.
This creates a strange scenario where Indonesia’s most agile, competitive, and future-oriented companies are effectively disqualified, while slower-moving, monopoly-backed SOEs are celebrated for scale alone.
If Fortune rewarded efficiency, strategy, or impact, the list would look very different. Instead, it reflects raw commercial gravity; an advantage that comes far more easily when your customers have no other choice.
The Bigger Question: Is This What “Making It” Looks Like?
The fact that Indonesia’s only Global 500 representatives are state-owned giants is a statement, even if unintentional, about where scale lives in the Indonesian economy.
Not in competitive consumer markets.
Not in high-growth tech.
Not in regional manufacturing.
But in two long-established state institutions whose size is rooted in policy.
PLN is now one of the largest companies in the world by revenue. It achieved that without operating internationally, without courting global investors, and without ever facing the pressures that shape most modern corporations. It grew big by doing what it was built to do: provide power to everyone, with no rival in sight.
There is nothing wrong with that. But if this is the model of success being elevated, it deserves closer scrutiny. It tells us more about Indonesia’s population and regulatory framework than it does about global relevance or business ingenuity.
Of course, every country has state-backed players on the list. China’s State Grid is often in the top 5. aramco is a regular. But they typically appear alongside a diverse cast of companies in sectors like tech, banking, and manufacturing. Indonesia has the scale, but not (yet) the breadth.
The underlying message is that the pathway to global business recognition in Indonesia still runs disproportionately through the state. That model cannot carry the next generation of companies.
So if we really want to see more Indonesian names on this list (and for the right reasons) we’ll need:
Capital that backs long-term scale
Regulatory environments that allow innovation without capture
Export-ready products that transcend the archipelago
And yes, maybe a few global brands that people outside Southeast Asia can recognize
Until then, the Fortune Global 500 will remain more of a mirror for how big our public sector can get, not how far our private sector can go.
This is not about dismissing what Pertamina and PLN represent. Both are vital to Indonesia’s functioning. They keep the lights on, the engines running, and hundreds of thousands employed. Their size is real, and their role in the national economy is undeniable.
The point is that their success should not be mistaken for the full picture of Indonesia’s corporate potential. Being large because you serve a captive domestic market is different from being large because you’ve competed, innovated, and expanded into new territory. One is stability. The other is ambition.
The Fortune Global 500 is worth celebrating, but only in proportion to what it measures: scale in revenue. It is not proof that a country’s private sector is thriving internationally. It is not proof of brand power or market leadership beyond home borders.
Indonesia has the people, the creativity, and the entrepreneurial energy to produce companies that are both large and globally competitive. The next entrants to this list should get there by building something that stands on the world stage, not just something that fills the domestic grid. Big is good. Bold is better. And bold is what will keep Indonesia climbing.
At StratEx - Indonesia Business Advisory we help Indonesian businesses and investors design structures, teams, and market approaches that drive sustainable competitiveness. Contact us for more information.