Contents
Key Takeaways
- For the first time, Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the revenue leader among U.S. companies, recording $716.9B versus Walmart’s $713.2B in 2025.
- Year-over-year, Amazon’s revenue climbed 12.4% while Walmart’s increased only 4.7%.
- Amazon Web Services expanded 20% annually and now represents 18% of Amazon’s total revenue stream.
- Seth Klarman, the billionaire fund manager, purchased approximately $500M worth of Amazon shares during Q4 2025 while reducing his Alphabet stake by 41%.
- For the coming quarter, Amazon projects 11–15% revenue expansion and has earmarked $200B for capital investments in 2026.
Walmart’s reign as the revenue champion of American corporations has come to an end after 24 consecutive years. Amazon has claimed the crown with annual revenue reaching $716.9 billion in 2025, edging past Walmart’s $713.2 billion.
The retail giant from Bentonville first secured the number one position in 2001 when it displaced Exxon Mobil. That leadership position remained unchallenged until this year.
The divergence in growth trajectories between these retail titans paints a revealing picture. Amazon posted 12.4% revenue growth for 2025, while Walmart achieved 4.7%. If these expansion rates persist, the gap between them will likely continue expanding.
The Drivers Behind Amazon’s Superior Growth
Walmart generates approximately 90% of its revenue through physical retail locations and its e-commerce platform. Amazon operates with a far more diversified revenue model — generating income from marketplace seller commissions, logistics services, digital advertising, and cloud infrastructure.
Amazon Web Services posted 20% annual growth and currently contributes about 18% of the company’s overall revenue. The advertising division and fulfillment operations are also expanding at impressive rates.
This business model diversity provides Amazon with inherent advantages for top-line expansion, regardless of whether its direct retail operations outperform Walmart’s brick-and-mortar sales.
Amazon’s share of the U.S. retail market has reached approximately 9%, up from about 6% in the pre-pandemic era. Meanwhile, Walmart maintains around 7.6% market share, essentially unchanged during the same timeframe.
The Seattle-based company is committing $4 billion toward constructing same-day delivery facilities across rural regions of America. Last year, 100 million shoppers received same-day delivery orders — representing the company’s fastest delivery performance to date.
Klarman’s Strategic Move Into AMZN
As Amazon’s revenue achievement dominated business news, Seth Klarman, the renowned value-focused billionaire investor, was methodically accumulating a substantial Amazon position during Q4 2025.
Baupost Group, Klarman’s investment firm, deployed nearly $500 million into Amazon shares throughout the quarter, elevating it to the fund’s second-largest holding at 9.3% of assets under management.
To finance this acquisition partially, he reduced his Alphabet holdings by 41%. Alphabet shares had soared approximately 65% during 2025, driving its forward price-to-earnings ratio from roughly 20 in August to about 30 by year-end — a valuation level typically unappealing to value-oriented investors.
Amazon stock, conversely, gained merely 5% during that same timeframe. This relative underperformance seems to have presented the opportunity that attracted Klarman’s attention.
AWS revenue jumped 24% year-over-year during the fourth quarter. Amazon has issued guidance calling for 11–15% revenue growth in the upcoming quarter, substantially higher than Walmart’s projected 3.5–4.5% expansion.
The technology and retail conglomerate intends to allocate $200 billion toward capital spending throughout 2026 to address accelerating demand for artificial intelligence cloud computing capabilities. Company executives have indicated that AWS is experiencing demand levels exceeding available capacity.
Amazon shares are currently trading beneath the price point where Klarman established his Q4 stake. Wall Street analysts forecast approximately 20% earnings growth for 2027, with the stock valued at roughly 22 times those projected 2027 earnings.
