As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, a handful of its largest companies are marking a different kind of milestone: histories that stretch back nearly to the nation’s founding—or even before it existed.
Among the recently-released 2026 Fortune 500—a ranking of the largest U.S. corporations based annual revenue—several firms trace their roots to the 18th century. The Bank of New York (BNY) traces its roots to 1784, while Cigna Group and State Street Corporation followed in 1792, as the newly formed republic was beginning to build its financial and corporate systems.
And one company in the Fortune 500 reaches even further back to a time before the United States declared independence.
Molson Coors Beverage Company, the brewer behind brands including Coors, Miller, and Blue Moon, traces its origins to 1774, when William Worthington began brewing in Burton upon Trent, England. More than a decade later, in 1786, English immigrant John Molson established what would become Canada’s oldest brewery on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Montreal.
“My beer has been universally well-liked beyond my most sanguine expectations,” Molson once wrote of his early success.
What began as a small colonial-era brewing operation has since evolved through mergers, expansions, and seven generations of family legacy into a global beverage company. Now headquartered in Chicago, Molson Coors ranks No. 390 on the Fortune 500, with $11.14 billion in revenue and more than 16,000 employees.
So how does a company survive for centuries when nearly half of businesses fail within five years? According to Richard Sylla, professor emeritus at NYU Stern School of Business, the answer boils down to a surprisingly simple formula.
“You’ve got to pick the right industry to be in,” Sylla told Fortune. “And then you have to have leadership that avoids the troubles.”
Sylla, coauthor of the report “Scale and Scope in Early American Business History: The ‘Fortune 500’ of 1812”, noted many of the country’s earliest dominant companies were banks—an early clue as to which sectors were built for longevity.
The 200-year survival of American banking institutions and insurance companies
Companies’ endurance through wars, the Great Depression, multiple financial crises, and repeated waves of technological disruption stands in stark contrast to modern corporate survival rates. Today, nearly 50% of all companies fail within five years of founding, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Financial institutions, in particular, dominate the list of America’s oldest continuously operating firms, including BNY, State Street, and major banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup, all of which trace their roots back more than two centuries.
In Sylla’s view, that’s no accident.
“They picked the right industry to be in,” he said. “But, of course, being in that industry, it has its ups and downs—panics and crashes. The firms that survived navigated the ups and downs of the financial system better than the firms that disappeared.”
Leadership, he added, often means anticipating trouble before it arrives. Sylla pointed to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as an example of an executive who has remained publicly cautious about the economy even during strong markets—a mindset he sees as critical to long-term survival.
“He has a lot of worries about things,” Sylla said. “That shows me he’s thinking ahead and trying to make sure his bank isn’t vulnerable.”
Strategic discipline has also been key to the longevity of State Street, according to its president of investment services, Joerg Ambrosius. The financial institution traces its origins to 1792, when Union Bank received a charter from then–Massachusetts Gov. John Hancock.
“State Street was always very clear and very disciplined in its strategic direction,” Ambrosius told Fortune.
“The business model is super clear. We do not do many things, but the things that we do, we aspire to be the best in the market and to be a world-class leader—and that has not changed in the 25 years that I’ve been with the company,” he added.
Insurance companies also feature prominently among the country’s oldest enterprises. The Cigna Group and Hartford Insurance Group have operated for more than two centuries, evolving alongside the industries—and risks—they were originally created to insure.
Cigna chairman and CEO David Cordani said the company’s longevity reflects both adaptation and continuity.
“America was founded on the idea that people can build better futures, for themselves, for their community, and for their country,” Cordani told Fortune in a statement. “We have been part of that story since 1792, starting with insuring ships and cargo to protect American commerce.”
“More than 230 years later, we’ve evolved into a leading health services company helping millions of Americans achieve their health goals,” he continued. “Through decades of innovation, our role has changed but our purpose has remained clear: protecting people in the moments that matter.”
