65It's that time of year again when the Fortune 500 list in the US is unveiled, and the 2026 ranking has written a new chapter in history.
Amazon, a company born in a garage and started by selling books, has successfully dethroned Walmart from its “Iron Throne” after 13 consecutive years.
When Amazon first made the list in 2002, it was barely at the edge in 492nd place. Who could have imagined that twenty years later, it would not only become the highest revenue company in the US, but also end the long reign of an established giant. You should know, in the more than 70-year history of this list, the number of times the top spot has changed is fewer than the times people change their phone cases.
But to be honest, if Amazon only relied on opening an online store and making a small profit from selling goods, it would have been very difficult to catch up and surpass in the final stretch. What really enabled it to make the decisive leap was its second growth engine hidden inside the company——cloud services.
Image source:Fortune
Data shows that in 2025, Amazon's net sales grew by 12% for the whole year, reaching about $716.9 billion. Walmart's sales for the same period were $713.2 billion. The absolute gap is indeed small, but Walmart's 4.7% growth rate pales in comparison to Amazon's 12% high growth, like a sprinter running out of energy and being overtaken on the curve.
Even more crucial is the profit support. Last year, AWS's annual sales grew by 20% year-on-year, directly contributing $128.7 billion in revenue. This dual-track approach of “selling goods online for cash flow, earning profit from cloud services” allows Amazon to keep its back straight even during economic slowdowns, and to continuously invest in the future.
Image source:AWS
And the directions Amazon invests in are all tough challenges that make it even harder for competitors to catch up. Recently, Amazon announced it would invest more than 10 billion euros to upgrade its entire logistics network in Europe, and also launched a brand new AI-powered warehouse robot called Proteus.
What’s different about Proteus? It can understand employees’ speech. If you tell it to move a box to the door, it can plan its own route, avoid obstacles, and complete the task. It’s expected that in the first half of 2027, this kind of AI robot will be fully deployed in major warehouses across Europe. On the delivery side, Amazon has made ultra-fast delivery increasingly common in the UK; in some cities like Manchester and Birmingham, residents can receive their purchases at their doorsteps within half an hour.
When the bar for user experience is raised so high step by step, Walmart and the followers behind it are finding it increasingly difficult to catch up.
Image source:Amazon
The applause for reaching the top hasn’t even fully faded, and on the other side, a sense of unease is already emerging.
Tuke's monthly visits have now reached 1.34 billion, not only firmly holding the second spot in global e-commerce website traffic, but also digging away Amazon’s basic traffic every day with ultra-low price strategies. Some institutions estimate that Tuke's global transaction volume this year may exceed $100 billion.
Another force is TikTok Shop, which excels in content. In 2025, the platform's global transaction volume surged nearly 70% year-on-year, with active consumers reaching 400 million. It is expected that by 2026, its global transaction volume could leap to over $112 billion. Whether it’s low-price attacks or content-driven diversion, every punch from the four major Chinese e-commerce players going Tuke hits Amazon’s traditional stronghold.
Walmart is not sitting idle either. In early February 2026, Walmart's market value broke through the $1 trillion mark for the first time. It also left the New York Stock Exchange, deliberately moving its stock to the Nasdaq, which represents the new tech forces. Walmart's online business turned profitable for the first time last year, with annual e-commerce sales estimated at around $140 billion. This retail giant, once seemingly cumbersome, is gradually transforming itself into a tech company. Don’t think it’s out of the game—it’s just switched tracks.
Image source:MarketWatch
Amazon has reached the top, but whether this crown is heavy or stable depends on its ability to respond over the next three years. For sellers on the platform, a period of real pain is coming in full force.
To survive, there are no longer as many options as before: multi-platform layout to spread single risks, lowering operating costs to retain survival space, and developing the ability to react quickly. As for which path to take, that depends on your own skills.
But no matter what you choose, one thing is 100% certain: in this invisible battlefield of business, those who run slowly are most likely destined to be kicked out of the game.
