Amazon dethrones Walmart as the world's biggest company by sales [View all]
Source: NPR
February 19, 2026 11:16 AM ET
In a slow-motion race of two behemoths, Amazon has officially displaced Walmart as the world's biggest company by sales.
For the first time, Walmart on Thursday reported lower annual sales than Amazon: Walmart's revenue was $713.2 billion for the year ending in January, while Amazon, boosted by its lucrative cloud-computing business, made $716.9 billion in revenue for the year ending in December.
For about a decade, Walmart had reigned supreme thanks to its status as the world's largest retailer with nearly 11,000 stores employing more than 2 million people. Amazon has struggled to develop a physical-store footprint despite its purchase of Whole Foods in 2017. But it's the biggest online retailer, employing 1.6 million people.
Yet the factor that's propelled Amazon past Walmart is its fast-growing technology side. Amazon Web Services is the leading provider of cloud computing. Earlier this month, it reported its fastest growth in years, as companies turn to Amazon Web Services and its massive web of data centers in their rush toward artificial intelligence.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/19/nx-s1-5719173/amazon-walmart-biggest-company-by-sales
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