TLDR
- Amazon overtook Walmart as America’s largest company by revenue, reporting $716.9B vs. Walmart’s $713.2B in 2025.
- Amazon’s revenue grew 12.4% last year; Walmart grew just 4.7%.
- AWS grew 20% year over year and now makes up 18% of Amazon’s total revenue.
- Billionaire investor Seth Klarman bought nearly $500M of Amazon stock in Q4 2025 after cutting his Alphabet position by 41%.
- Amazon is guiding for 11–15% revenue growth next quarter and plans $200B in capital expenditures for 2026.
Amazon has ended Walmart’s 24-year run as America’s largest company by revenue. The e-commerce giant reported $716.9 billion in annual revenue for 2025, narrowly beating Walmart’s $713.2 billion.
Walmart first claimed the top spot in 2001, knocking Exxon Mobil off the throne. It held the title every year until now.
The growth gap between the two companies tells the story clearly. Amazon grew revenue 12.4% in 2025. Walmart managed 4.7%. At those rates, the margin between them is likely to keep widening.
Why Amazon Is Growing Faster
Around 90% of Walmart’s revenue comes from its stores and website. Amazon draws income from a much wider mix — third-party seller fees, fulfillment services, advertising, and cloud computing all contribute to the total.
AWS grew 20% year over year and now accounts for roughly 18% of Amazon’s total revenue. Advertising and fulfillment services also continue to grow at a healthy clip.
That diversity gives Amazon a structural advantage when it comes to growing its top-line number, even if its core retail business doesn’t outsell Walmart’s directly.
Amazon’s U.S. retail market share now sits at around 9%, up from roughly 6% before the pandemic. Walmart’s share is approximately 7.6%, roughly flat over the same period.
The company is also investing $4 billion to build same-day delivery hubs in rural America. In 2025, 100 million customers ordered items for same-day delivery — the fastest speeds Amazon has ever recorded.
Seth Klarman Bets Big on AMZN
While the revenue milestone made headlines, billionaire value investor Seth Klarman was quietly building a large position in Amazon stock throughout Q4 2025.
Klarman’s fund, Baupost Group, invested nearly $500 million in Amazon during the quarter, making it the fund’s second-largest holding at 9.3% of the total portfolio.
He funded part of the move by trimming his Alphabet position by 41%. Alphabet stock surged roughly 65% through 2025, pushing its forward P/E from around 20 in August to around 30 by December — expensive territory for a value investor.
Amazon, by contrast, rose just 5% over the same period. That underperformance appears to be exactly what caught Klarman’s eye.
What Comes Next for Amazon Stock
AWS revenue grew 24% year over year in Q4. Amazon is guiding for 11–15% revenue growth next quarter, compared to Walmart’s guidance of 3.5–4.5%.
The company plans to spend $200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026 to meet surging demand for AI cloud services. Amazon has said AWS demand has been outpacing supply.
Amazon stock currently trades below the price at which Klarman established his Q4 position. Analysts project around 20% earnings growth in 2027, with the stock trading at roughly 22 times their 2027 earnings estimates.
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