E-Commerce & Cloud Giant Reports $716.9 Billion In 2025 Net Sales, Edging Walmart’s $713.2 Billion & Reshaping The Definition Of Global Retail Dominance
Saturday, February 21, 2026, 8:15 A.M. ET. 4 Minute Read, By Haylee Ficuciello, Economy & Finance Editor: Englebrook Independent News,
MORRISTOWN, NJ.- Amazon has overtaken Walmart as the world’s largest company by annual sales, ending Walmart’s 13-year streak at the top of global revenue rankings after a razor-thin finish that reflects how modern “retail” has evolved into a hybrid of commerce, logistics, advertising, subscriptions, and cloud computing.
Amazon reported $716.9 billion in net sales for calendar-year 2025, representing a 12 percent increase over 2024, according to the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings results released earlier this month. Walmart, meanwhile, disclosed $713.2 billion in revenue for the 12 months ending January 31, 2026, marking one of the highest annual revenue totals ever recorded by a retailer.
The difference, approximately $3.7 billion, amounts to less than one percent of either company’s total annual sales, underscoring the extraordinary scale at which both firms now operate, even as they rely on different business models and financial calendars.
A Milestone With An Important Distinction;
While the development has widely been described as Amazon becoming the world’s largest “retailer,” the comparison is based on total company revenue, not retail sales alone.
Amazon’s reported 2025 total includes substantial non-retail revenue streams, most notably Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud-computing division. In 2025, Amazon reported $128.7 billion in AWS sales, alongside $426.3 billion from its North America segment and $161.9 billion from international operations.
By contrast, Walmart’s revenue remains overwhelmingly tied to traditional retail operations, including grocery, general merchandise, and in-store and online sales. Financial analysts have repeatedly noted that while both companies sell goods to consumers, Amazon’s expanding role as a technology and services provider complicates direct “retailer-to-retailer” comparisons.
Nevertheless, the shift is symbolically significant. Walmart’s position as the world’s highest-revenue company has long been synonymous with retail dominance, and Amazon’s ascent reflects years of sustained growth across multiple lines of business.
How Amazon Reached The Top;
Amazon’s growth in 2025 was driven by a combination of expanding e-commerce volume, rising advertising revenue, Prime subscription income, and continued demand for cloud infrastructure, particularly as businesses increased spending on artificial intelligence and data-processing capabilities.
In addition to revenue gains, Amazon reported stronger profitability and cash flow generation in its 2025 results. AWS, while no longer Amazon’s fastest-growing segment, remains its most profitable, providing financial support for continued investment in fulfillment centers, logistics automation, and same-day and next-day delivery capabilities.
The company’s transformation from an online bookstore into a global digital infrastructure provider has allowed Amazon to scale in ways that extend well beyond traditional retail economics.
Walmart’s Record Year, Despite Losing The Top Spot;
Walmart’s loss of the revenue crown comes during a period of exceptional performance. The company reported record annual sales and strong momentum in e-commerce, advertising, and delivery services.
In its most recent fourth quarter alone, Walmart posted $190.7 billion in revenue, highlighting continued consumer demand even amid economic uncertainty. The company has also expanded its higher-margin advertising business and invested heavily in automation, data analytics, and omnichannel shopping experiences.
Executives have emphasized that Walmart’s strategic focus remains on long-term growth, profitability, and customer retention rather than headline rankings, noting that the company continues to serve hundreds of millions of customers weekly across physical stores and digital platforms.
What The Shift Signals For The Global Economy;
For consumers, Amazon’s narrow victory is unlikely to bring immediate changes, but it reinforces intense competition between the two giants, competition that continues to drive faster delivery, broader product selection, and aggressive pricing.
For investors and policymakers, the development highlights a broader transformation: retail leadership now extends far beyond store count and shelf space, encompassing cloud computing, digital advertising, subscription ecosystems, and logistics networks capable of operating at a global scale.
As both companies push toward trillion-dollar annual revenue territory, the global retail economy appears increasingly defined by a two-company rivalry, one rooted in physical scale and grocery dominance, the other in technology, logistics, and digital infrastructure.
Editor’s Note:
This article was written by Haylee Ficuciello, Economy & Finance Editor, and is based on company-reported financial results and publicly released earnings materials. Amazon’s $716.9 billion figure reflects net sales for the calendar year ending December 31, 2025, as reported in its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings release. Walmart’s $713.2 billion figure reflects revenue for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2026, as disclosed in Walmart’s FY2026 fourth-quarter earnings release and related filings.