For nearly two decades, Walmart proudly called itself the nation’s “Fortune 1” company — the largest in America by annual revenue, a title it had held since overtaking Exxon Mobil in the early 2000s. That era has now ended, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Amazon has surpassed Walmart to become the largest U.S. company by annual revenue, reporting $716.9 billion for its most recent fiscal year, compared with Walmart’s $713.2 billion for the year ended Jan. 31. The margin is slim, but the symbolic shift is profound.

A 17-Year Climb

Amazon, founded July 5, 1994, is 31 years old. Walmart, founded in 1962, is 63. What began as Jeff Bezos’ online bookstore has evolved into a sprawling technology and logistics powerhouse spanning e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, entertainment, and advertising.

Walmart had ranked No. 1 on the Fortune 500 for years, including topping the 2025 list ahead of Amazon, UnitedHealth Group and Apple.

Internally, however, Walmart had long anticipated the possibility of losing the revenue crown, and had begun shifting its messaging away from being the biggest toward becoming “America’s favorite place to shop.”

A Walmart spokeswoman declined to comment on losing the top spot. Amazon also declined to comment specifically on surpassing Walmart, but said it delivered at its fastest speeds in 2025 and that 100 million customers ordered items for same-day delivery.

Competing Profit Engines

Amazon’s ascent has been fueled by faster growth. Sales rose 12.4% last year, compared with Walmart’s 4.7% increase.

But the companies’ business models are fundamentally different.

Amazon’s profit engine is increasingly powered by non-retail segments — most notably Amazon Web Services and advertising — which generate higher margins than traditional retail. Its marketplace model also allows third-party sellers to list goods on its platform, with Amazon collecting fees rather than owning the inventory.

Walmart, by contrast, still generates the bulk of its revenue and profit from U.S. stores, selling directly from its own inventory. However, it is building out higher-margin businesses of its own, including advertising and membership income, while aggressively expanding its online capabilities.

Under new CEO John Furner, who took over Feb. 1, Walmart is signaling that scale alone is no longer the goal.

“I’ll say the pace of change in retail is accelerating,” Furner told analysts. “For Walmart, the future is fast, convenient and personalized.”

Speed vs. Stores

Amazon has relentlessly reinvested cash into logistics, technology and new categories.

It is spending $4 billion to build a same-day delivery network in rural America and added same-day grocery delivery in more than 2,300 towns last year.

The retail titan says faster delivery leads customers to shop more frequently. Half of items ordered by Prime members for same- or next-day delivery are groceries and everyday essentials, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

Walmart has responded by leaning into its physical footprint — expanding same-day delivery to 95% of U.S. households and widening its online marketplace selection. Its vast store network doubles as a fulfillment engine, enabling curbside pickup and rapid local delivery without building an entirely new infrastructure from scratch.

The advantage for Amazon: high-margin cloud and advertising profits help subsidize aggressive retail investment and rapid logistics expansion.

The lead for Walmart: unmatched physical scale, deep grocery dominance and steady cash flow from in-store sales.

Share of US Retail Sales

Amazon now accounts for roughly 9% of total U.S. retail spending, up from about 6% before the COVID-19 pandemic. Walmart represents about 7.6% of total U.S. retail spending, roughly steady with its pre-pandemic share.

That market-share expansion has helped tip the revenue balance in Amazon’s favor.

Still, analysts caution that Amazon’s revenue leadership is partly driven by non-retail segments. In pure retailing, Walmart remains formidable.

Walmart remains America’s largest grocer — a powerful competitive moat.

Roughly 72% of U.S. households reported buying groceries at Walmart in the past month, according to a December survey, an increase of six percentage points from the prior year.

Amazon has struggled at times to crack physical grocery retail, closing dozens of stores this year, even as it continues to expand Whole Foods and invest in grocery delivery. The company plans to build a large-format store in the Chicago area that blends groceries with general merchandise — a nod to Walmart’s supercenter model.

The Next Giant

The race for America’s largest company by revenue remains fluid.

UnitedHealth Group, Apple, CVS Health and others consistently rank near the top of the Fortune 500 behind Walmart and Amazon.

Exxon Mobil — which once held the revenue crown before Walmart — remains a perennial heavyweight as well.

For now, Amazon wears the crown — though the rivalry between the 31-year-old tech titan and the 63-year-old retail giant is far from over.

If Amazon’s edge comes from technology and reinvestment in speed, Walmart’s counterpunch lies in physical scale, grocery dominance, and a retooled digital push.

As Furner put it, the battle is no longer about being the biggest — it’s about being the fastest and most convenient in a retail world that is ever-changing at an accelerating pace.