According to the agency report, Amazon’s revenue from operations was $717 billion for the fiscal year ending December 2025, as per data released earlier this month, while Walmart reported revenues of $713.2 billion for the 12 months ending 31 January 2026.
The news report also highlighted that Amazon’s overtaking move comes more than a decade after Walmart maintained its lead of being the largest company by revenue.
Amazon vs Walmart
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly studied Walmart founder Sam Walton, learning from his business strategies as he built his company. Over the years, Amazon’s revenues have increased nearly 10 times at the pace of Walmart, fueled by a shift in consumer spending from stores to websites and its rapidly growing cloud-computing business, Amazon Web Services.
Amazon is a market giant which receives 2.7 billion visits each month, while Walmart is the largest physical retailer in the world, with more than 10,000 stores and shopping clubs around the world, with its primary market in the United States, according to the agency report.
While Walmart is witnessing more success developing its e-commerce operation than Amazon, the e-commerce giant is creating a physical store business despite its 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Market.
According to the agency report, Amazon’s increase in revenues was due to the company’s dominance in cloud computing, a business where Walmart does not operate. Without those revenues, Amazon’s 2025 revenue would have been $588 billion, hence highlighting the dependence on data centres and critical infrastructure in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
“This is a hollow victory,” said Kirthi Kalyanam, executive director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University, told the news agency. “Amazon didn’t beat Walmart in the retail game. It just beat them in revenue by launching a new business Walmart doesn’t operate in.”
Share price snapshot
Amazon stock price was trading 0.20% higher at $205.29 as of 11:33 a.m. (EDT) on Thursday, compared to $204.79 at the previous market close. While Walmart’s stock was trading 0.10% higher at $126.75 as of 11:33 a.m. (EDT), compared to $126.62 at the previous market close.
The agency report highlights that being the biggest company by revenue mostly represents scale and consumer reach, and isn’t necessarily valued by investors. Before Walmart, Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Motors Co. had the distinction, which brings with it greater political scrutiny and customer expectations.
In terms of market capitalisation (M-Cap), Nvidia Corp. is the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalisation of $4.5 trillion, more than double Amazon’s and more than four times larger than Walmart.
