After 13 long years, Walmart is no longer the largest company in America.
Amazon has overtaken Walmart to claim the No. 1 spot on the Fortune 500, the annual ranking of America’s biggest companies by revenue. The latest list, based on fiscal 2025 revenue, puts Amazon in the top spot, followed by Walmart and UnitedHealth Group.
The shakeup marks the first time since 2013 that Walmart has not held the No. 1 position. For more than a decade, the superstore chain sat unchallenged at the summit of American commerce. No longer.
The Numbers That Matter
Amazon generated roughly $717 billion in revenue during the most recent reporting period, narrowly surpassing Walmart’s $713 billion. A difference of just $4 billion separated the two retail giants — but that slim margin was enough to end an era.
UnitedHealth Group rounded out the top three with $447.6 billion in revenue.
Amazon’s ascent was fueled by rapid growth across its sprawling business lines, including e-commerce, cloud computing, advertising, and third-party seller services. The company’s revenue grew about 12% year over year, significantly outpacing Walmart’s roughly 5% increase.
While Walmart remained bigger in core U.S. store-led retailing, Amazon’s expanding mix of businesses helped it pull ahead. Amazon Web Services generated nearly $129 billion in revenue in 2025. The company’s advertising business brought in more than $68 billion.
The Shift in Retail Power
The Fortune 500 ranking is more than a bragging right. It is a snapshot of where economic power resides in America. For 13 years, Walmart represented the dominance of physical retail — massive stores, sprawling supply chains, and the ability to move goods at scale across the country.
Amazon’s rise to the top represents something else: the dominance of digital commerce, cloud infrastructure, and data-driven advertising. The company that started as an online bookstore now generates more revenue from selling computing power and ad space than most companies generate from everything they do.
Walmart is not small. $713 billion in revenue is still an enormous sum. But the company has not been able to match Amazon’s growth rate. And in the Fortune 500, growth is how you win.
What This Means
The changing of the guard at the top of the Fortune 500 is symbolic, but it is not theoretical. Amazon’s diversified business model has proven more resilient and more scalable than Walmart’s store-driven approach. The pandemic accelerated the shift to e-commerce. The cloud computing boom has shown no signs of slowing. And Amazon’s advertising business has become a legitimate rival to Google and Meta.
Walmart has fought back, investing heavily in its own e-commerce capabilities and fulfillment network. But the company remains primarily a retailer. Amazon is a retailer, a cloud provider, an ad platform, a logistics giant, and a media company all at once.
That diversification is what pushed Amazon over the top. And it is what may keep it there.
The Bottom Line
Amazon has overtaken Walmart to become the No. 1 company on the Fortune 500, ending Walmart’s 13-year reign at the top. Amazon generated roughly $717 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue, narrowly surpassing Walmart’s $713 billion. UnitedHealth Group ranked third with $447.6 billion. Amazon’s growth was fueled by its cloud computing and advertising businesses, which helped it outpace Walmart’s roughly 5% revenue increase.
