The past decade was a tumultuous one for some major firms, while others have enjoyed unprecedented success, and others have had a mixed 10 years of ups and downs. Looking back to 2010 we reveal where 20 of the world's biggest companies as defined by the Fortune Global 500 stood and look at how they got to the top.

General Motors was in recovery mode in 2010. The venerable US automaker had celebrated its centenary two years prior but had little to be jubilant about. The global financial crisis was hitting the business hard and CEO Rick Wagoner (pictured) had to go cap in hand to Congress to beg for a whopping $49.5 billion (£37.9bn) bailout. A year later in 2009 GM entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Wagoner was fired and the firm was reborn in 2010 as a publicly traded company.

The company share price dipped in 2011 but surged in 2012 and 2013 on the back of buoyant sales in North America. The company also gained its current CEO Mary Barra in 2013, the first female CEO of a major car manufacturer. However, the year after her appointment share price dipped again due to the infamous faulty ignition switch scandal and subsequent recall. Since then weak sales in Europe – GM ended up offloading its European operations in 2017 – not to mention China have offset the firm's strong performance elsewhere, and the current share price is just a few cents higher than the IPO price a decade ago.

One of America's Big Three automakers along with GM and Chrysler, Ford was also in recovery mode back in 2010. While the Detroit-based firm never received any bailout cash thanks to the shrewd cost-cutting measures it had initiated, the company secured $5.9 billion (£4.5bn) in government loans in 2009 to update its manufacturing plants and the following year debuted new F150, Taurus, Fusion models, and more.

Ford stock was on an upward trajectory in 2010 and the company posted its fattest profits for over a decade during the fourth quarter. The other big news that year was the sale of Volvo to China's Geely. But profits took a tumble in 2011 and again in 2013, before hitting record levels in 2015. The high didn't last long, and profits soon fell again. In 2018 the company, which like GM has been plagued by slowing sales in Europe and China, announced it was phasing out almost all of its cars to focus on SUVs, pickups and crossovers.

Chevron's fortunes were on the up in 2010 along with its share price, although revenue actually dropped that year. The US shale boom was just getting going in 2010 and would work wonders on Chevron's oil and gas production, which had already jumped by a tidy 7% during the year.

Oil and gas prices rose in 2011 and stayed fairly high until 2014 when the shale boom reached its peak. Needless to say Chevron stock hit record highs in June 2014, but plummeted in price when global commodity prices nosedived during the latter half of the year. In recent years the company has worked diligently to reduce its focus on fossil fuels and has taken steps to integrate renewable energy into its business.

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A decade ago AT&T was in decent shape. Though growth prospects were fairly lacklustre, the US telecoms behemoth had coasted the global financial crisis – its revenues and earnings per share actually increased in 2008 and were stable in 2009 – and the company was resting on its laurels as the sole American carrier to offer the iPhone having closed a plum deal with Apple in 2007.

But things took a turn for the worse in 2011 when AT&T lost its exclusive Apple contract and was barred by the US government from acquiring rival T-Mobile USA. But the company managed to weather the storm and has since successfully diversified its business, having snapped up satellite distributor DirecTV in 2014 and media and entertainment giant Time Warner for $100 billion (£76.6bn) last year. However, such moves aren't without risk and the Time Warner merger has been described by one analyst as putting AT&T into "terrifying" debt.

Total stock was on something of a rollercoaster ride over the past 10 years, and went up a down like a yo-yo, reflecting the fortunes of the French energy company, which saw its fair share of highs and lows. The firm started the decade as it meant to go on with profits up 136% during the final quarter of 2009, yet the company struggled to achieve profit growth for much of the decade.

In terms of the lows, Total pulled out of the UK forecourt market in 2010 and went on to cut jobs in the country in 2015. It was also embroiled in several corruption scandals. One particularly dark day for the firm was 20 October 2014 when CEO Christophe de Margerie (pictured) died in a plane crash. It wasn't all doom and gloom however. Total made a number of savvy acquisitions and boosted its development of renewables this past 10 years, and profits have grown since 2016.

US pharmacy and healthcare titan CVS Health, which was called CVS Caremark Corporation at the time, reported a modest decrease in revenue in 2010 of 2.3%, but got its act together by the end of the year. The firm posted bumper sales and profits from 2011 to 2015 and its share price skyrocketed.

CVS Caremark Corporation rebranded as CVS Health in 2014 after it agreed to stop selling tobacco products, closed a lucrative deal with Target in 2015 and expanded its in-store clinics. Initially it suffered from the change, and the firm's share price tumbled from 2015 to 2017 as the tobacco ban and increased competition from the likes of Walgreens ate into its bottom line. But the stock got a much-needed bump in 2018 following the company's takeover of medical insurer Aetna. 

Daimler entered the 2010s on a strong footing. The German automaker had wisely sold off its stake in Chrysler three years prior before the proverbial hit the fan for the troubled US company and had just entered into a strategic alliance with Renault-Nissan that would go on to pay dividends. The firm had also returned to profit thanks to robust Mercedes sales.

Daimler went one better in 2011 posting record sales and profits, and apart from a blip in 2013, reported stellar revenue and profits until 2018. Then a toxic combination of surging costs associated with transitioning to electric cars alongside the fallout from the firm's diesel emissions scandal and a costly airbag recall led to a 30% collapse in profits. Fortunately, the company is now on the road to recovery based on strong sales of vans and cars.

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The so-called biggest company you've never heard of, Glencore posted colossal revenues of $145 billion ($111bn) in 2010. Hardly a household name, the secretive Swiss commodity trading company didn't really hit the headlines until the following year when it mounted the biggest IPO in UK history with stock priced at £5.30 ($6.92) per share.

Despite a successful albeit controversial merger with British-Swiss mining firm Xstrata, the Glencore share price slumped during the first half of the past decade, bottoming out at a disappointing 69p (90 cents) in September 2015, and since then has never attained the IPO price with ailing global commodities markets chiefly to blame. Glencore has also been at the centre of numerous bribery and corruption scandals, which haven't done its reputation any favours.

The Korean chaebol that conquered the world, Samsung Electronics cemented its position as the planet's most popular Android smartphone company in 2010 when it launched the groundbreaking Galaxy S, which at the time was the fastest and thinnest Android smartphone on the market. The family-run firm was also leading the globe in smart TVs and digital imaging, and was riding high as one of the world's foremost semiconductor makers.

Samsung Electronics posted record revenues in 2010. Earnings and profits were impressive throughout much of the past decade but have weakened of late due to increased competition from China. Like other firms in our round-up, Samsung has been hit by scandal: its vice president and de facto boss Lee Jae-yong aka Jay Y. Lee (pictured) was jailed for bribery, embezzlement and perjury in 2017, freed in 2018 and now faces a retrial.

Back in 2010 UnitedHealth Group, America's number one medical insurance provider, was grappling with the Obama administration's healthcare reform as well as increasing unemployment, which was wearing away its corporate membership base. But nonetheless the firm managed to grow its revenue and turn a decent profit owing to the group's robust government and senior divisions. 

Over the past decade UnitedHealth Group, which is renowned for embracing technological innovation, saw its revenues and profits mushroom together with its share price, which has been on a steep upward trajectory. This has delighted investors no-end. The company has even managed to weather a series of legal problems, including a mammoth Medicare overbilling lawsuit that has dragged on since 2011.

Amazon enjoyed a sensational decade. The unstoppable e-commerce and cloud-computing leviathan wowed investors with 46% revenue growth during the first quarter of 2010 and has continued to report massively increasing sales and profits. Unsurprisingly the company share price has soared, inflating by a jaw-dropping 1,300% since the beginning of 2010.

Over the past 10 years the business reached a $1 trillion (£795bn) valuation, the firm's CEO Jeff Bezos became the richest person on the planet, the number of Amazon employees grew from 24,300 to 647,500, while the company has done everything from expand big-time into grocery delivery to produce award-winning original content for its Prime Video service. 

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The ridiculously successful investment conglomerate headed by the so-called 'Oracle of Omaha' Warren Buffett was on top form in 2010. The group reported its chunkiest net profit to date and pulled off a $26 billion (£19.9bn) takeover of railroad company BNSF Railway, which at the time was its biggest ever deal. As a result the Berkshire Hathaway share price swelled by 23% during the year.

The group proceeded to do no wrong throughout much of the 2010s, scoring its largest ever acquisition in 2014 when it purchased aircraft parts company Precision Castparts for $32.4 billion (£24.8bn). Berkshire Hathaway stock continued to perform brilliantly until last year when analysts began to question why the conglomerate failed to make any major buys despite sitting on a record $128 billion (£97.9bn) cash pile. 

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Apple bypassed Microsoft in 2010 to become the world's largest tech firm. The company launched the iPad and iPhone 4 and saw sales of its smartphone almost double compared to 2009. Apple also rolled out updates to its iPod Nano, iPod Touch, Apple TV and MacBook Air lines. By the end of 2010 the firm's stock was up by 51%.

However, tragedy befell Apple the following year when CEO Steve Jobs passed away, marking the end of an era. The company's stock dipped in September 2012 but recovered the following year as iPhone sales surged. Apple went on to make history in August 2018 when it become the first US public company to be valued at over $1 trillion (£795bn) and had a stellar 2019 with its stock hitting record highs.

In 2010 Toyota Motor was in the midst of a major recall of 8.1 million vehicles due to an accelerator pedal fault. The costly recall damaged both the reputation and bottom line of the Japanese carmaker and its share price remained in the doldrums until 2012. The company was also adversely affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.

Luckily the automaker reported strong revenue growth in 2012 and again in 2014, and was the world's leading vehicle manufacturer from 2012, when it bypassed General Motors and Volkswagen, to 2018. Toyota has maintained its position as the number one manufacturer of hybrid and zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

At the start of the decade Volkswagen was undergoing a major expansion, having just acquired a 49.9% stake in Porsche. The German automaker followed this up in January 2010 by purchasing 19.9% of Japanese motoring business Suzuki's issued shares. All in all 2010 was an excellent year for the company with sales revenue in North America increasing by 33.3% and in Europe by 11.4%, and its Polo model bagged Car of the Year at the World Car Awards.

Revenues continued to grow along with the company share price until the emissions scandal came to light in 2015. Dieselgate battered sales particularly in the US where they fell by 25%, but they have since rebounded. In fact Volkswagen reported record sales in 2018. Its SUV models have been selling like hot cakes, and as it expands its range of electric cars, the company faces a bright future

ExxonMobil became America's largest natural gas producer in 2010 with the acquisition of XTO Energy. The oil and gas company continued to expand its global oil operations that year digging a plethora of new wells and investing in a number of megaprojects including ventures in Kazakhstan and Qatar. On a roll, the firm reported 41% revenue growth for the first quarter of 2010.

ExxonMobil followed this up by negotiating a lucrative deal with Iraq's Kurds in 2012, but overall revenues fell significantly in 2014 as global oil prices tanked. The drop in prices has also hurt ExxonMobil stock, which bar a spike in 2016 has been trending down since 2014.

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BP experienced an annus horribilis in 2010. The British oil and gas company attracted worldwide scorn for the catastrophic oil spill that seeped out of its Gulf of Mexico prospect in April of that year. The Deepwater Horizon spill pummelled the company's share price, stalled its revenue growth and led to the resignation of chief executive Tony Hayward. The company ended up having to sell assets worth billions of dollars to cover liabilities associated with the disaster.

BP started the decade as a leader in renewable energy in line with its 'Beyond Petroleum' rebrand, but the company backed away from green energy during the early 2010s, shutting down its solar power arm in 2011 and cancelling a key biofuels project the following year. Thankfully the company has recently pledged to invest heavily in clean energy over the coming years.

In 2010 Saudi Aramco had an estimated market cap of between $2.2 trillion (£1.7trn) and $7 trillion (£5.4trn), making it the world's most valuable company. The state-owned energy company was benefiting in a big way from rising oil prices and with the Khurais oil field on stream since 2009, had significantly increased capacity. 

A cyberattack in 2012 and drone attacks last year hurt the company but the drop in oil prices from 2014 onwards has had an even greater negative impact on Saudi Aramco and led to calls for increased diversification and the firm's flotation on the stock market. The world's most profitable company went public in December in what was the biggest IPO of all time and became the first company to be worth $2 trillion (£1.5trn) in December 2019.

Royal Dutch Shell was the world's biggest company by revenue in 2009, but dropped to position number two in 2010. Be that as it may, the British-Dutch firm remained the planet's leading oil and gas business and its revenues grew by an impressive 48% during the first quarter of 2010. Flush with cash, the company embarked on a $28 billion (£21.4bn) capital spending spree that year.

The firm was once again the largest company in the world by revenue in 2012 and 2013 but lost out to Walmart thereafter. Like the other oil and gas businesses in our round-up, Royal Dutch Shell's revenues fell dramatically during the middle part of the decade as commodity prices dipped and still haven't recovered to 2010 levels.

Walmart posted record sales of $404.7 billion (£309.8bn) in the 2010 tax year and counted 2.1 million employees, making the US retailer the world's biggest private employer. The group expanded into India in 2010, invested $2 billion (£1.5bn) to fight hunger in the US and launched a global commitment to sustainable agriculture.

Revenues steadily increased during the decade to hit $514.4 billion (£393.7bn) in the last tax year, while the number of Walmart employees now stands at 2.2 million. The highlights and lowlights of the past 10 years included expansion on the one hand and store closures on the other, growth of the online delivery business, staff strikes over low pay and limitations on the sale of firearms and ammo in US stores.

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