• Amazon (AMZN) surpasses Walmart (WMT) with $716.9 billion in 2025 net sales, ending Walmart's 13-year reign at the top.
  • Amazon's 12% year-over-year growth outpaces Walmart's 4.7%, driven by high-margin businesses like AWS and advertising.
  • The shift highlights divergent business models, with Amazon leveraging technology and services while Walmart maintains a strong physical retail base.

Amazon has overtaken Walmart to become the world's largest company by revenue, reporting $716.9 billion in 2025 annual sales compared to Walmart's $713.2 billion, according to recent financial disclosures. This marks the first time Amazon has claimed the top position, ending Walmart's 13-year reign at the summit of the Fortune 500. The revenue gap narrowed dramatically from 2024, when Walmart held a commanding lead with $681 billion versus Amazon's $638 billion.

Amazon's growth trajectory proved decisive, with its revenue increasing 12% year-over-year, while Walmart's grew only 4.7%. The divergence reflects fundamental business model differences. Amazon's growth is increasingly driven by higher-margin businesses: third-party seller services comprised 24% of total sales, while AWS accounted for nearly 18%. In contrast, Walmart's revenue is anchored in physical retail, with approximately 60% derived from groceries.

Efforts to expand marketplaces have intensified on both sides. Walmart's marketplace surged 34% in the U.S. last quarter, demonstrating aggressive growth, but Amazon maintains superior global presence and seller support infrastructure. Without a deal to boost its digital footprint further, Walmart risks falling behind in the e-commerce race, according to industry analysts.

In grocery retail, Walmart retains a significant advantage, commanding 21% of overall U.S. grocery spending, while Amazon and Whole Foods each capture only 1.6%. Amazon is addressing this weakness by closing Fresh and Go locations and converting some sites to Whole Foods stores, with plans to open over 100 new Whole Foods locations in the coming years, people familiar with the matter said.

Capital expenditure strategies also differ sharply. Amazon announced capital expenditures of $200 billion for 2026, predominantly in AWS infrastructure for artificial intelligence, while Walmart has partnered with Google to integrate its products into the AI assistant Gemini. These investments underscore a broader trend toward automation, with U.S. Prime members receiving over 8 billion items same-day or next-day in 2025, a 30% increase year-over-year.

The revenue crossover represents a symbolic shift in retail power dynamics, highlighting how Amazon has evolved from an e-commerce player into a sprawling technology and services giant. Market reactions have been muted so far, with shares of both companies trading within narrow ranges as investors weigh long-term implications. Attempts to reach spokespeople for comment were unsuccessful at press time.

Looking ahead, the competitive landscape remains intense. Amazon's exploration of a new physical retail supercenter concept suggests convergence toward Walmart's hybrid model, but the winner may ultimately depend less on raw revenue and more on profit margins and adaptability. Both companies view technology infrastructure as critical, with Amazon's cloud computing dominance positioning it to capitalize on AI-driven shifts more rapidly.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Walmart's 2025 revenue; it has been updated to $713.2 billion.