Good morning. Amazon is poised to take Walmart’s top spot in what has become a contest between two tech-enabled giants.
After Walmart reported a record $713.2 billion in fiscal-year revenue on Thursday, Amazon edged past it with $716.9 billion for 2025—positioning the Seattle-based company to debut at No. 1 on the next Fortune 500 ranking, set for release in June.
That would mark a significant shift. For the past 13 years—and 21 of the past 24—Walmart has held the No. 1 spot on the list. Fifteen years ago, Amazon was a fraction of Walmart’s size; today, its multi-engine model, spanning e-commerce, logistics, AWS, and a fast-growing advertising business, has produced a growth rate roughly three times Walmart’s in recent years. The result is not just a new revenue leader, but a reshaped definition of what a “retailer” looks like in the age of cloud computing and AI.
Yet the deeper story for CFOs and investors is how much these two rivals now resemble each other. Walmart is leaning into e-commerce, data, automation, and advertising, while Amazon continues to invest heavily in physical infrastructure and everyday essentials. You can read more about the numbers, the strategy, and what Amazon’s long march past Walmart signals about the future of scale, margins, and customer “obsession” in a deep dive by Fortune’s Phil Wahba.
Walmart’s earnings for the quarter ended Jan. 31 showed that its fastest-growing profit engines are tech-enabled businesses such as digital advertising and membership, which account for a disproportionately large share of operating income relative to their share of sales. U.S. e-commerce reached a record 23% of fourth-quarter sales, rising 27% year over year and driving most of the company’s growth. For the full year, e-commerce sales exceeded $150 billion for the first time.
On Thursday’s earnings call, executives highlighted the impact of automated distribution centers on delivery costs as they pitched a “people-led, tech-powered omnichannel” model. AI was also central to the message.
Walmart CFO John David Rainey said the company is pursuing AI development through partnerships. The company most recently announced they’re working with OpenAI and Google.
“AI is increasingly embedded across Walmart,” Rainey said. “It’s strengthening our operations, improving associate productivity, and enhancing the customer experience, and that’s coming to life with Sparky.”
Sparky is Walmart’s generative AI-powered shopping assistant, which is evolving into a more agentic AI platform. Roughly half of app users have tried Sparky, he said, and customers who engage with it have an average order value about 35% higher than those who do not.
The AI emphasis dovetails with Walmart’s recent move to the Nasdaq and inclusion in the Nasdaq-100, which is a signal that the company wants investors to benchmark it alongside platform and cloud-era leaders, including Amazon, rather than the traditional retailers it once disrupted.
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Notable CFO moves this week:
James Chuong was appointed CFO of Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: TEAM), a software provider for team collaboration, effective March 30. Chuong brings more than 20 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO at LinkedIn. During his 13 years at LinkedIn, he held several finance leadership roles, leading global teams responsible for financial planning and analysis, business operations, international finance, and financial systems. Before that, Chuong worked in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America Securities.
Brian Piper was named EVP and CFO of Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA). Piper brings more than 25 years of experience. He was previously CFO of Scorpion Therapeutics until its acquisition by Eli Lilly in 2025, and thereafter served as CFO of Antares Therapeutics following its spin-off from Scorpion. Before that, he was CFO of Prelude Therapeutics, a publicly traded biotech company. Earlier in his career, he served as CFO of Aevi Genomic Medicine and spent 13 years at Shire Pharmaceuticals.
Anne Johnson, who has served as CFO of biotechnology company AtaiBeckley Inc. since 2024, will transition to the role of chief accounting officer, effective March 9. Michael Faerm will succeed Johnson as CFO. Faerm has more than 25 years of experience. He most recently served as CFO at Viracta Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, he was interim CFO at Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc., which was acquired by Merck. Before that, Faerm served as the chief business officer of Innoviva, Inc.
Matt Peterson was appointed CFO of Branch, a workforce payments platform. Peterson's career spans accounting, investment banking, and finance leadership roles. He has advised and played a key role in taking multiple companies public, including guiding Fastly through its 2019 IPO. Peterson also held senior finance roles at Attentive Mobile and, most recently, served as CFO of Snappy, an enterprise gifting and rewards platform.
David Liu was promoted to CFO of SuccessKPI, a workforce engagement management platform. Liu has more than 20 years of experience within the company and in finance roles at GE Capital, Citigroup and Amazon. He will oversee finance, corporate development and HR, driving financial strategy.
Kyle Wager was appointed CFO of Airwavz Solutions, a telecommunications infrastructure company. Current CFO Shawn Kocher will transition to chief financial strategist. Wager has more than a decade of leadership experience across finance, operations, and accounting, including senior roles at Agile Networks, InSite Wireless, and Summit Materials.
Big Deal
Going deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
"When Bitcoin prices turned against Michael Saylor, he quietly pivoted to risky financial gambit at Strategy" By Shawn Tully
"Troubled Nvidia ally Supermicro pledged to hire a new CFO ‘immediately.’ That was 14 months ago." By Amanda Gerut
"Deutsche Bank asked AI how it was planning to destroy jobs. And the robot answered" By Nick Lichtenberg
"A headache is already emerging for Kevin Warsh at the Fed: Some members aren’t just resisting a rate cut, they’re open to a hike" By Eleanor Pringle
Overheard
"Two realities define the leadership challenge ahead. First, companies must adopt new technologies fully, at speed, and with incredible levels of investment to remain competitive. Second, the transition to an AI-powered economy will reverberate widely, reshaping jobs, income models, communities, and the role of business in society."
—Martin Whittaker, CEO of Just Capital, writes in a Fortune opinion piece.
