2026 Business Milestone: Amazon Dethrones Walmart in Revenue Race

In a landmark corporate milestone, Amazon has officially surpassed Walmart to become the world’s largest company by annual revenue in 2026. Amazon reported $717 billion in sales for fiscal year 2025, edging past Walmart’s $713.2 billion revenue for the 12 months ending January 31. The achievement highlights Amazon’s rapid expansion beyond retail into cloud computing and AI-driven infrastructure, reshaping the global corporate landscape.

Revenue Comparison of 2025: Amazon vs Walmart

• Amazon reported: $717 billion revenue (FY 2025)
• Walmart reported: $713.2 billion revenue (FY ending Jan 31, 2026)

Walmart had held the top revenue position globally for over a decade before being overtaken.

How Amazon Achieved the Top Spot

Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore, Amazon has expanded aggressively across sectors.

Key growth drivers,

• Massive expansion in e-commerce
• Rapid growth of Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• AI-driven data centre infrastructure
• Global digital consumer shift

Over the past decade, Amazon’s revenue growth rate has been nearly 10 times faster than Walmart’s.

The Role of AWS and Artificial Intelligence

A major factor in Amazon’s rise is its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Without AWS,

• Amazon’s revenue would have been $588 billion in 2025

This shows that Amazon’s dominance is strongly linked to,

• AI-era data centre demand
• Cloud infrastructure services
• Enterprise digital transformation

Walmart does not operate in cloud computing, giving Amazon a strategic advantage.

Retail Battle: Physical vs Digital

While Amazon leads in online retail with,

• 2.7 billion website and app visits per month
• Walmart remains the largest physical retailer with:
• 10,000+ stores and shopping clubs worldwide

Interestingly,

• Walmart is improving faster in e-commerce
• Amazon has struggled to expand physical retail despite acquiring Whole Foods Market in 2017
• This indicates that Amazon’s revenue victory is not purely retail-driven but technology-driven.

Market Value vs Revenue

Being the largest company by revenue does not necessarily mean being the most valuable.

Currently,

• Nvidia is the world’s most valuable company with $4.5 trillion market cap
• Amazon’s market value is less than half of Nvidia’s
• Walmart’s valuation is significantly smaller

Thus, revenue leadership reflects scale, not necessarily profitability or market capitalization.

Jeff Bezos and Wealth Ranking

• Jeff Bezos, who surpassed Bill Gates as the world’s richest person in 2017.
• Who is currently ranks fourth globally with an estimated net worth of $228 billion, largely tied to Amazon stock holdings.

Question

Q. In 2026, Amazon surpassed which company to become the largest by annual revenue?

A) Apple
B) Walmart
C) Microsoft
D) ExxonMobil