Amazon has surpassed Walmart to become the world’s largest company by revenue, marking a significant milestone for the e-commerce and cloud computing major that began as an online bookseller in Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1994.

Walmart, which had held the top spot for more than a decade, reported sales of $713.2 billion for the 12 months ended January 31. Amazon, which follows a December-ending fiscal year, earlier this month posted 2025 revenue of $717 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.

Over the past decade, Amazon’s revenue growth has outpaced Walmart’s by nearly 10 times, driven by a shift in consumer spending from brick-and-mortar stores to online platforms, as well as the rapid expansion of its cloud arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Amazon and Walmart remain direct rivals in retail. Amazon is the largest online retailer, with its website and mobile applications drawing about 2.7 billion visits each month. On the other hand, Walmart is the world’s biggest physical retailer, operating more than 10,000 stores and shopping clubs globally. 

Amazon’s rise to the top in revenue terms is largely attributable to its dominance in cloud computing, a segment where Walmart has no presence. Excluding AWS, Amazon’s 2025 revenue would have stood at $588 billion, Bloomberg reported. 

Before Walmart, Exxon Mobil and General Motors had held the distinction. In terms of market capitalisation, Nvidia is currently the world’s most valuable company at $4.5 trillion, more than double Amazon’s valuation and more than four times that of Walmart, according to Bloomberg.