For 13 straight years, Walmart was the #1 company on the Fortune 500. Now, Amazo
By Liranhirschkorn · February 27, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
For 13 straight years, Walmart was the #1 company on the Fortune 500.
Now, Amazon has passed them. $716.9 billion vs. $713.2 billion.
But here's the number no one's talking about.
Strip out AWS, and Amazon's retail revenue is $588 billion. That's $125 billion BEHIND Walmart.
Cloud computing (not commerce) is what pushed Amazon over the top.
The world's biggest "retailer" didn't win on retail. It won on infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Walmart just reported its first-ever standalone e-commerce profitability. Digital sales up 27%. Marketplace categories like fashion and home decor up 40%+.
So the real story isn't "Amazon passed Walmart."
The real story is: both companies are investing harder into marketplace and digital than ever before.
Amazon will be only the 4th company to ever hold the Fortune 500 #1 spot, after Exxon, GM, and Walmart.
Over the last seven years, Amazon grew at roughly 3x Walmart's pace.
But Walmart isn't standing still. Their marketplace is growing faster than Amazon's in several categories.
The world's biggest company isn't really a retailer. And the world's biggest retailer isn't slowing down. That's the real story.