Business
Amazon Takes the Revenue Crown as Walmart’s Troubles Begin
Retail Dynamics
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Corporate Control
Jeff Bezos spent years studying Sam Walton’s playbook. What followed was corporate patricide. Amazon officially overtook Walmart as the world’s biggest company by sales in 2025, posting $717B in revenue against the latter’s $713.2B. The takeover ended Walmart’s decade-long reign, except the crown may be the least of its worries right now.
Cleanup on aisle one: As cloud overtakes carts, Walmart’s lane just hit some turbulence. Its conservative full-year profit forecast ($2.75-$2.85) missed Wall Street’s expectations ($2.97), as tariffs and a softening jobs market muddied the outlook. Investors are treating the cautious guidance as a broader economic read — spending is holding, but the ground beneath it feels unsteady, especially for lower-income shoppers. As for Amazon’s new trophy, it historically draws political heat and sky-high expectations anyway. Walmart might be quietly relieved to hand it over and rebuild from aisle two.
