The morphology of multiple-shell fullerenes is investigated by ab init
io calculations using Yang's O(N) method. It is found that for large s
ingle-shell fullerenes with I(h) symmetry, the spherical morphology ha
s lower energy than that of polyhedron. The formation energy per atom
follows a simple scaling law. Including an estimate of intershell van
de Waals interactions leads to the conclusion that spherical multiple-
shell fullerenes are likely the most stable structure of large carbon
clusters. These results are in good agreement with recent experiments.