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FORTUNE.COM // JUNE.1.
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focus
briefing
passions
CONTENTS
last byte
79 Beauty Beyond
the Counter
French brands win over
customers seeking a
more personal touch.
By LINDSEY TRAMUTA
83 H o l l y w o o d ’s
Wine Seller
Meet the man who
keeps the stars
stocked with the
best vintages.
By SHEILA MARIKAR
tech
42 Unicorns Feast at
the IPO Trough
All signs point to a
record-breaking year
for U.S. tech.
By ROBERT HACKETT
45 Where the
Splinternet Thrives
A balkanized
Internet puts U.S.
tech companies in a
difficult position.
By JEFF JOHN ROBERTS
48 Artificial
Intelligence 101
Everything you want to
know but were afraid
to ask.
By JONATHAN VANIAN
venture
55 Warby Parker in
Hindsight
How a group of
Wharton MBA students
took on Big Eyewear.
Interview by DINAH ENG
27 In the Land
of Giants
The top companies on
the Fortune 500 are
using their prodigious
scale to get even more
powerful. By ERIKA FRY
32 The Cost of a
$1 Trillion Buyback Year
Corporate America
may be overpaying its
own shareholders.
By MATT HEIMER
34 China’s Slow
down Explains “996”
Chinese tech firms
are pushing their
workers into insanely
long hours.
By EAMON BARRETT
36 Why Can’t
Drugstores Quit?
Rite Aid and Walgreens
still sell cigarettes. Is it
bad for their health?
By PHIL WAHBA
37 Census Security
The bureau is adopting
cutting-edge privacy
techniques.
By ROBERT HACKETT
20 The Prize of Size
Every company in the
Fortune 500, it seems,
wants to be much,
much bigger.
By CLIFTON LEAF
foreword
300 The Biome
of Business
With a sense of eco-
systems in mind, here’s
a look at America’s
“corporatome.” Te x t by
CLIFTON LEAF; graphic by
NICOLAS RAPP
A timeline featured in “Kleiner Perkins: A Fallen Empire”
(May 1) inaccurately stated that Frank J. Caufield and Brook
Byers cofounded the firm in 1972; they joined later on. It
also said the investment for Fisker Automotive came from a
dedicated “clean tech” fund; the investment came from other
Kleiner funds.
Graphic visualizations of CO 2 emissions in Analytics (May 1)
were mislabeled; the relevant units of measure were gigatons
(for the top charts) and millions of tons (for the map).
around the wheel
WHAT OUR EDITORS
ARE UP TO THIS MONTH
we’ll do it live
Our Most Powerful
Women conference
calls in London
(June 3–4); the CEO
Initiative initializes
in New York City
(June 10–11); and our
first-ever Brainstorm
Finance conference
mobilizes in Montauk,
N.Y. (June 19–20).
fortuneconferences
.com
a delicate bal ance
Who needs David
Attenborough when
you have the dulcet
tones of the team
behind The Ledger—
Robert Hackett, Jen
Wieczner, and Jeff
John Roberts—
guiding you through
the worlds of fintech
and cryptocurrency?
fortune.com/
balancingtheledger
38 Capturing the
Valley From Above
A photographer casts
an eye on Apple’s
spaceship-like campus.
By ALEX SCIMECCA
40 A Euro Solution
for American Gridlock
Could congestion
pricing help eliminate
traffic jams?
By TAMARA WARREN
invest
73 These Stocks Are
Born to Run
We scoured the 500
for four all-American
stocks that still
have upside.
BY REY MASHAYEKHI
