71. PepsiCo

PepsiCo's 2025 U.S.-booked air spending in 2025 remained about even with the prior year, according to a BTN estimate.

Elliott Investment Management in September 2025 revealed a $4 billion investment in PepsiCo and in a letter to the company's board and noted PepsiCo Beverages North America's underperformance versus peers because of "self-inflicted share losses in soda, an underperforming vertically integrated bottling structure and a proliferation of new brands and SKUs that has strained focus and execution." Elliott also was the activist investor that pushed Southwest Airlines in 2024 to make board and strategic changes.

PepsiCo in December 2025 announced plans, supported by Elliott, to cut its U.S. product line by 20 percent, reduce prices on core brands and formalize a broader restructuring. Days later, PepsiCo announced that CEO of North America Steven Williams on Dec. 28, 2025, would move into the role of global chief commercial officer and corporate affairs, while Ram Krishnan, former CEO of PepsiCo Beverages U.S., would succeed him.

Since then, the company in June 2026 closed a Frito-Lay distribution plant in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., resulting in 248 layoffs, in August filed a WARN notice that 105 employees would be permanently laid off at a PepsiCo Beverages Sales building in Columbia, S.C., and in September shut down its manufacturing and warehouse operations at a bottling plant in Cheverly, Md., resulting in 143 layoffs.

The company also reported greenhouse gas emissions from 2025 business travel of about 86,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, down from about 94,200 reported in 2024. The latest figure remains above its 2022 baseline of 84,600 MtCO2e emissions.

PepsiCo's net revenue in 2025 increased 2 percent year over year to more than $93.9 billion. At the end of 2025, the company employed about 306,000 individuals, down approximately 13,000 from a year prior. About 125,000 of those employees are in the United States, down from 134,000 in 2024.