Amazon overtakes Walmart to become world’s biggest company by revenue

Amazon.com Inc. has surpassed Walmart Inc. to become the world’s largest company by revenue, marking a symbolic shift in global commerce from traditional retail to digital platforms and cloud computing.

Walmart, which had held the top spot for more than a decade, reported annual revenue of $713.2bn for the 12 months ending 31 January. Amazon, whose financial year runs to December, earlier posted 2025 sales of $717bn, edging ahead of its long-standing rival.

Bloomberg noted that the milestone underscores the extraordinary growth of Amazon since its founding in 1994, when Jeff Bezos launched the business as an online bookseller from his garage in the Seattle area. Bezos closely studied the methods of Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, adopting several of his strategies while adapting them to the digital age.

Over the past decade, Amazon’s revenues have expanded at nearly ten times the pace of Walmart’s, driven by the steady migration of consumer spending from physical shops to online platforms and the rapid expansion of its cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

A Moneycontrol report said that the two companies continue to compete directly for shoppers, particularly in the United States, where both generate the majority of their sales. Amazon remains the largest online retailer, with its website and mobile applications drawing billions of visits each month. Walmart, meanwhile, retains its position as the world’s largest bricks-and-mortar retailer, operating more than 10,000 stores and wholesale clubs worldwide.

While Walmart has made progress in expanding its e-commerce operations, Amazon’s push into physical retail — including its 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Market — has been comparatively modest. However, analysts note that Amazon’s ascent in overall revenue owes much to AWS, a business in which Walmart does not compete.

Excluding AWS, Amazon’s 2025 revenues would have totalled $588bn, leaving it well behind Walmart. The company’s lead therefore reflects the growing importance of cloud infrastructure and data centres in the era of artificial intelligence.

Some experts argue the achievement is largely symbolic. Kirthi Kalyanam, executive director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University, said Amazon had not overtaken Walmart in traditional retail terms but had instead benefited from diversification into a highly lucrative technology sector.

Being the largest company by revenue signals scale and global reach, though it does not necessarily equate to investor value. Nvidia Corp. is currently the world’s most valuable listed company by market capitalisation, at around $4.5tn — more than double Amazon’s valuation and more than four times that of Walmart.

Bezos, who surpassed Bill Gates as the world’s richest person in 2017, is now ranked fourth on global wealth lists, with an estimated fortune of $228bn, much of it tied to his Amazon shareholding.