Beijing has the second largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies' headquarters in the world, according to the business magazine Fortune.

Since 2011, three more companies in that ranking have established their headquarters in Beijing. That brought the total number of top 500 companies that are based in the city to 44, according to the magazine's recently issued 2012 list, which ranked companies by their revenues.

Tokyo is home to the largest number of companies on the list, 49 in total.

The first half of the year saw 13 of the top 500 companies, including Amazon.com Inc, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co, invest in 16 projects in Beijing. They spent $1.44 billion, which made up 23.5 percent of the city's contracted foreign investments in that period.

And 279 of the top 500 enterprises have invested in 637 projects in Beijing, according to Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce.

More than 90 percent of the top 500 companies' headquarters have sales and procurement functions and more than half perform research and development.

lijiabao@chinadaily.com.cn