For over a decade, Walmart sat comfortably as the king of annual revenue. However, Walmart\u2019s annual revenue report released on Thursday confirmed a change-up on the leaderboard. <\/p>\n
The retail company reported $713.2 billion for its most recent fiscal year, boosted by a 24% growth of online sales \u2014 but despite this, it still fell just shy of Amazon\u2019s $716.9 billion. <\/p>\n
While the decadelong reign on top comes to the end, it wasn\u2019t exactly a shock to the business world. Amazon had already signaled its potential leading revenue early last year when its quarterly sales surpassed Walmart\u2019s for the first time. <\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s rise to the top<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s online store is the company\u2019s primary engine for revenue, while the way it has diversified its services is where the growth has come from. According to CNBC<\/a>, cloud computing, advertising and seller services have become key to the retailer\u2019s revenue. In fact, third-party sellers, including commissions and fulfillment fees, accounted for roughly 24% of Amazon\u2019s total sales in 2025, according to the company\u2019s report<\/a>. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services contributed 18% of total revenue. <\/p>\n While it dominates the online market, Amazon still faces a physical hurdle. The retail giant has struggled to cement a brick-and-mortar footprint despite its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods. In contrast, Walmart remains a physical giant with over 2 million employees and nearly 11,000 stores globally, according to NPR<\/a>. <\/p>\n Despite losing the top spot, Walmart isn\u2019t standing still, and it hasn\u2019t dropped in sales, either. In fact, it\u2019s quite the opposite. The company\u2019s revenue has more than doubled in 20 years, and it is leveraging its 4,600 U.S. stores to power its business online that grew 27% in the last quarter, according to CNBC. It has also reported double-digit percentage increases for 15 straight quarters. <\/p>\n In early February, Walmart\u2019s stock value went over $1 trillion in market value, while Amazon\u2019s topped $2 trillion in 2024, according to NPR. <\/p>\n The AI race<\/p>\n As both companies\u2019 largest market is the U.S. and as they compete for the same dollar, they have been moving to artificial intelligence to succeed. Both have stepped into the race, with their own shopping assistants and investments into retail technology. <\/p>\n Walmart partnered with OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT in October and Google Gemini in January to create a virtual assistant, Sparky. Sparky helps shoppers navigate the app and find products more easily. <\/p>\n Walmart CFO John David Rainey noted that the company is leaning on tech partners rather than building in-house. \u201cThis lets tech companies do what they do best, develop innovative technology, and it provides us clarity to do what we do best, to translate the best of tech to retail experiences that create value for our customers and members and our enterprise,\u201d he said on the company\u2019s earnings call. <\/p>\n Walmart highlighted it will be allocating 3.5% of sales toward AI, automation and remodels. <\/p>\n