Amazon reported $716.9 billion in net sales for 2025, ending a 13-year run in which Walmart led by revenue, a milestone that underscores how the biggest retailers are being reshaped by online commerce and fast delivery.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, reported annual sales of $713.2 billion Thursday, while Amazon disclosed its 2025 total earlier this month in its fourth-quarter report.
Amazon said net sales rose 12% from 2024 to $426.3 billion in North America, $161.9 billion internationally and $128.7 billion at Amazon Web Services, its cloud-computing unit.
Walmart's board also approved an annual cash dividend for fiscal 2027 of $0.99 per share, a 5% increase from the prior fiscal year's $0.94.
"Dividends continue to be a part of our diversified capital returns approach," Walmart Executive Vice President John David Rainey said in a statement. "We're proud to be increasing our annual dividend for the 53rd consecutive year. This decision is a proof point of our continued confidence in our business performance and forward momentum."
The shift at the top comes as Amazon has been retrenching in parts of its business while investing heavily in artificial intelligence.
Reuters reported in late January that Amazon confirmed 16,000 corporate job cuts as part of a broader restructuring.
In a June message to employees about generative AI, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote that changes in how work gets done would reshape staffing.
"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said.
Amazon has also narrowed its physical grocery strategy.
In January, the company said it would close Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores, and would prioritize online grocery delivery and the expansion of Whole Foods Market, adding that some shuttered locations would be converted into Whole Foods stores.
Beyond retail, Amazon has expanded into cloud computing and entertainment.
Amazon said it reached an agreement giving Amazon MGM Studios creative control of the James Bond franchise through a joint venture with longtime producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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