Corporations with assets exceeding $100 million are seeing a surge in closures and bankruptcies. Trends in Large Corporate Bankruptcy and Financial Distress—Midyear 2025 Update found that filings began to increase in early 2023 and have continued to rise into 2025. Over the past year, 117 mega corporations filed for bankruptcy. This is unusually high and 44% above the 2005-2024 average of 81 bankruptcies per year.
Mega bankruptcies or corporations with assets exceeding $1 billion are also on the rise, with 32 filings in the past month, up from 24 the year prior. The 2005-2024 average was 23 per year. In the first half of 2025 alone there were 17 mega bankruptcies on record, marking the highest figure on record since the pandemic of 2020.
Manufacturing has been hit hard. This is not the result of tariffs or a lack of migrant workers. The catalyst reported by 67% of manufacturing mega bankruptcies is the regulatory, legal, and political landscape. Additionally, 61% of all mega bankruptcies noted reduced demand due to high inflation, which forced them to file for financial insolvency. The service industry was hit the hardest by inflation as consumers do not have the disposable income.
Every report calls inflation an external factor but it has been exacerbated by fiscal deficits and central banks tinkering with rates in an attempt to control demand when that has never been the issue. Corporations of this size do not go into bankruptcy without a lengthy process. Years of mismanagement, trade barriers, ESG mandates, ever-changing policies, and taxation have chipped away at these industries.
Liability management transactions (LMTs) hit a record of 45 completed transactions last year and 27 in the first half of 2025. Dealing have become more complex as they attempt to delay the inevitable. Mega corporations relied on bailouts in the past, but the government has too many mouths to feed.
The fact that mega bankruptcies are rising shows that even large, previously “too big to fail” firms are no longer immune from collapse. That suggests a weakening foundation that threatens the broader financial system.
