By Jill McLaughlin
Amazon surpassed Walmart to lead the world in sales for the first time last year, according to year-end filings released on Feb. 19.
Walmart, the discount chain based in Bentonville, Arkansas, recorded annual sales that were lower than the online marketplace, reporting sales of $713.2 billion for 2025, while Amazon took in $716.9 billion.
Walmart reported impressive sales in its fiscal year that ended Jan. 31 in a report delivered to investors Thursday but was cautious about possible rocky economic times ahead.
“Given that we are as large as we are and so tied to consumer health and the economy, we want to maintain maximum flexibility and not get out ahead of ourselves at this point in the year,” Walmart’s chief financial officer John David Rainey said during an earnings call.
Rainey pointed to the country’s fragile job market and mounting student loan delinquencies among the growing issues the company was monitoring.
Walmart attributed strong sales results from November 2025 through January 2026 to 27 percent online sales growth, according to the report.
“The pace of change in retail is accelerating,” said Walmart CEO John Furner in a statement. “It’s exciting. And our financial results show that we’re not only embracing this change, we’re leading it.”
The company reported an increased annual dividend to $0.99 per share for investors and announced a new $30 billion share purchase authorization.
The report was the first made by Furner as the company’s new CEO. Walmart’s shares rose more than 25 percent since the last quarterly earnings report. The company became the first non-tech company to be worth more than $1 trillion earlier this month.
Walmart revenue continues to be resilient while customers are being careful with their budgets, Furner told investors.
“Again, this quarter, the majority of our share gains came from households making more than $100,000,” Furner said. “For households earning below $50,000, we continue to see that wallets are stretched, and, in some cases, people are managing spending paycheck to paycheck. That said, even these households are emphasizing convenience nearly as much as price.”
Despite topping Walmart in global sales last year, Amazon has had a rough start in 2026 after its Feb. 2 mixed-bag earnings report.
Amazon has a year-to-date loss of 11.25 percent as of Feb. 19 after management announced it planned to spend $200 billion in capital this year to build out its AI infrastructure.
The company also announced it was cutting around 16,000 jobs as part of an ongoing restructuring effort to flatten management layers, reduce bureaucracy, and redirect resources toward AI and other strategic priorities.
