While Wall Street debated AI spending and data center economics, a major shift quietly took place in corporate history.
Amazon has officially surpassed Walmart in annual revenue.
For calendar year 2025, Amazon reported sales of $717 billion. For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026, Walmart reported $713 billion in revenue.
After holding the top position for more than a decade, Walmart is no longer the world’s largest company by revenue.
This milestone did not trigger dramatic headlines or a sharp market reaction. The reason is simple. Investors are focused on something else.
Why This Happened
Amazon’s rise is not purely a retail story.
A significant driver is Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing division. AWS has become a foundational layer of the modern digital economy, powering enterprises, startups, governments and AI infrastructure.
Key context:
• Amazon’s total revenue: $717 billion
• Revenue excluding AWS: $588 billion
• Walmart total revenue: $713 billion
Without cloud computing, Amazon would still trail Walmart by more than $100 billion. That tells you how central AWS has become to Amazon’s scale.
Cloud is no longer a side business. It is a core engine.
The AI Spending Overshadow
Ironically, this historic milestone passed with limited attention because of Amazon’s aggressive capital spending plans.
The company announced it plans to invest $200 billion in 2026 on data centers, chips and related infrastructure. Similar spending commitments from Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft have intensified debate about whether AI infrastructure investments will generate adequate long term returns.
On earnings calls, analysts focused almost entirely on:
• Data center expansion
• AI infrastructure returns
• Cloud growth rates
• Capital expenditure intensity
Very few paused to reflect on the revenue crown changing hands.
The narrative in markets right now is about AI economics, not retail dominance.
Does This Threaten Walmart
Not necessarily.
Walmart remains deeply entrenched in the US consumer economy. It continues to refine its store network into hybrid fulfillment hubs and is gaining momentum in domestic e-commerce.
In fact:
• Walmart’s US e-commerce sales are expected to grow faster than Amazon’s this year
• Walmart leverages thousands of physical stores for last mile efficiency
• Rural America remains a competitive battleground
The retail fight between Amazon and Walmart is far from settled. It will likely continue for years, driven by logistics, pricing power, membership ecosystems and private label expansion.
A Familiar Pattern for Amazon
This moment mirrors Amazon’s past.
When Jeff Bezos aggressively expanded the company’s warehouse network between 2007 and 2015, investors criticized the heavy spending and thin margins. Many questioned whether the investments would ever justify the capital deployed.
Over time, those logistics bets became Amazon’s moat.
Today, under CEO Andy Jassy, the debate has shifted from warehouses to data centers. The tension is similar:
• Management prioritizes long term scale
• Investors worry about short term returns
• Capital intensity dominates the conversation
History suggests Amazon is comfortable trading short term profitability for strategic positioning.
What This Really Signals
Becoming the largest company by revenue is more symbolic than financial. Revenue leadership does not automatically mean superior profitability or valuation.
However, it signals something important:
• Digital infrastructure is now as powerful as physical distribution
• Cloud computing has altered what corporate scale looks like
• Retail and technology are no longer separate domains
Amazon’s ascent reflects a broader structural shift in the global economy. The biggest company in the world is no longer purely a retailer or an energy giant. It is a technology driven ecosystem spanning commerce, cloud, logistics, advertising and AI.