Business
Amazon surpasses Walmart in annual revenue for first time, as both chase AI-fueled growth
For the first time, Amazon has dethroned Walmart as the company with the largest annual revenue.
Walmart on Thursday reported annual revenue of $713.2 billion for its most recent fiscal year, shy of Amazon’s $716.9 billion in revenue. The milestone was brewing for months, as Amazon leapfrogged Walmart in quarterly sales for the first time about a year ago.
The shuffle, while largely symbolic, underscores the battle the two retailers have waged both to define and keep up with ever-changing consumer preferences. They are kicking off a new chapter of that rivalry as artificial intelligence reshapes how companies operate, make money and drive sales.
Amazon rose to the top of the revenue pile by doing much more than running a sprawling online web store and promising speedy delivery. While its core retail unit is its largest revenue generator, its huge cloud computing, advertising and seller services businesses also fuel its sales. Third-party seller services, which include commissions and fees collected by Amazon fulfillment along with shipping, advertising and customer support, accounted for about 24% of the company’s total sales in 2025, according to its latest annual filing. Amazon Web Services was responsible for roughly 18%.
It wasn’t Walmart’s weakness that led it to lose its top spot, as its revenue has more than doubled in 20 years. The retailer has leaned on its more than 4,600 Walmart stores and roughly 600 Sam’s Club locations in the U.S. to power its digital business, which grew by 27% in the U.S. in the fiscal fourth quarter and has posted double-digit percentage gains for 15 straight quarters.
That expansion came as Walmart riffed off the Amazon playbook and tried to position itself as a tech company as well as a retailer.
There have been multiple signs of its ambitions: Walmart relisted its stock, moving from the New York Stock Exchange to the tech-heavy Nasdaq in early December. Its market value surpassed the $1 trillion mark earlier this month, a valuation achieved almost exclusively by tech companies, including Amazon, after a more than 21% rise in the last year.
And the big-box retailer’s fourth-quarter earnings, which were boosted by digital advertising and its third-party marketplace, illustrated Walmart’s emphasis on chasing higher-margin businesses and thinking beyond brick-and-mortar retail.
Amazon and Walmart’s AI ambitions
In many ways, Walmart’s recent push to grow its third-party marketplace was an answer to the dominance of Amazon’s platform. Even as it tries to catch up with Amazon in some areas, Walmart is trying to gain an edge in a new frontier.
Over the past few years, Amazon and Walmart have used different AI strategies to try to make their businesses more efficient and make their merchandise more appealing to shoppers.
Walmart struck a deal with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in October and Google’s Gemini in January to make its products easier to discover and buy. It also has its own AI-powered shopping assistant, Sparky. The virtual assistant, which looks like a smiley face, pops up on Walmart’s app and can help shoppers find items.
Walmart, like many other companies, is in the early days of AI adoption, and it’s unclear how the technology will affect its business long-term.
On the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Walmart CEO John Furner said customers are spending more when they use Sparky. He said customers who use Sparky have an average order value that’s about 35% higher than shoppers who don’t use the tool.
About half of Walmart’s app users have used Sparky, Walmart U.S. CEO David Guggina said on the earnings call.
“Agentic AI is increasingly embedded across Walmart,” Guggina said. “It’s strengthening our operations. It’s improving associate productivity, and it’s enhancing the customer experience.”
Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said AI investments are included in the retailer’s capital expenditure plans for the full year, which are expected to be roughly 3.5% of sales. Those expenses also include the company’s investments in automation and store remodels.
There are limits to Walmart’s tech ambitions. When it comes to AI, Rainey said Walmart will lean on the expertise of tech companies rather than try to create its own products.
“As you’ve seen from the announcements we’ve made, we’re approaching AI development through partnerships,” he said on the company’s earnings call. “This lets tech companies do what they do best, develop innovative technology, and it provides us clarity to do what we do best, to translate the best of tech to retail experiences that create value for our customers and members and our enterprise.”
Like Walmart, Amazon is also facing new pressure to respond to the rise of agentic commerce. Chatbot makers like OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have introduced automated commerce features that aim to change how people shop online.
While other companies like Walmart, Etsy and Shopify have announced shopping partnerships with AI platforms, Amazon has remained on the sidelines. It’s blocked agents from accessing its site and has doubled down on its own shopping chatbot, Rufus, which is powered by its own models and Anthropic’s chatbot Claude.
The company said Rufus has been used by more than 300 million customers and drove almost $12 billion in incremental annualized sales last year. After slowly rolling out the service in beta two years ago, Amazon has injected Rufus across more areas of its app and website to encourage shoppers to use the tool.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that Rufus and other AI tools could assist shoppers with finding products much like an employee in a physical store.
“I think agents are going to help customers with that type of discovery,” Jassy said. “And it’s part of why we’ve invested so much in Rufus, which is our shopping assistant.”
Meanwhile, Amazon is throwing piles of cash at AI infrastructure. Earlier this month, it announced it would spend up to $200 billion this year on AI initiatives, more than any of the other hyperscalers, which combined have forecast nearly $700 billion in 2026 expenditures. Most of Amazon’s spending is expected to go to data centers, chips and networking equipment.
Wall Street has viewed Amazon’s capex plans skeptically, sending the company’s shares down for nine days straight following its Feb. 5 earnings report and shaving more than $450 billion off of its market value.
Amazon’s investments aren’t limited to AI compute. The company has also put significant resources and talent behind developing AI tools across all of its businesses. It has also rolled out a suite of AI models and revamped its Alexa assistant. It also has invested $8 billion in Anthropic since 2023.
— CNBC’s Robert Hum contributed to this report
Business
Day 3: Clean Max Enviro Energy IPO Vs Shree Ram Twistex IPO; Know GMP, Subscription And Reviews
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Clean Max Enviro Energy and Shree Ram Twistex IPOs are open for public subscription till 5 pm today; here’s which one looks better.
Clean Max Enviro Energy IPO Vs Shree Ram Twistex IPO.
Two mainboard IPOs — Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions and Shree Ram Twistex — have been closed today, February 25. The IPOs offer investors a choice between a renewable energy infrastructure play and a textile manufacturing bet. Here’s a comparison based on subscription data, grey market premium (GMP), valuations and broker views.
Subscription Status (Day 3)
On Day 3, Clean Max Enviro Energy IPO was subscribed 0.99 times. QIB demand stood at 2.99x, NII at 0.57x and retail at 0.07x, indicating subdued interest from investors.
Shree Ram Twistex IPO saw overall subscription of 43.66 times. Retail demand was at 76.63x, while QIB participation was 3.94x and NII stood at 220.30x.
Price Band And Issue Size
Clean Max Enviro Energy IPO is a Rs 3,100-crore issue comprising Rs 1,200 crore fresh issue and Rs 1,900 crore offer for sale. The price band is Rs 1,000-Rs 1,053 per share and minimum retail investment is Rs 14,742 for one lot of 14 shares.
Shree Ram Twistex IPO is a much smaller Rs 110.24-crore fresh issue priced at Rs 95-Rs 104 per share. Retail investors need Rs 14,976 to apply for one lot of 144 shares.
Grey Market Premium (GMP)
Clean Max Enviro’s GMP stood at (-)Rs 3, implying an estimated listing price of Rs 1,050, suggesting negative listing.
Shree Ram Twistex GMP was Rs 16.5, indicating an estimated listing price of Rs 120.5, or about 15.87% potential upside.
Both companies will be listed on BSE and NSE on March 2.
Business Positioning
Clean Max is India’s largest commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable energy service provider with roughly 8% market share. Analysts note the segment has a potential market size of about Rs 3 lakh crore as corporates — which consume nearly half of India’s electricity — increasingly shift toward green energy.
Shree Ram Twistex operates in the textile sector as a cotton yarn manufacturer serving B2B markets. Industry estimates suggest India’s textile sector could grow from about $174 billion to $350 billion by 2030, driven by exports, sustainability trends and policy support.
Analysts’ Views
SBI Securities highlighted Clean Max’s capital-efficient model and relatively low leverage, but noted the IPO is valued at EV/EBITDA of about 21.7x (FY25) and 16.3x (annualised 1HFY26).
Aditya Birla Capital said, “At the upper price-band, the issue is valued at 16x EV/Ebitda, which according to us, is expensive,” though it assigned a ‘Subscribe for long-term’ rating citing industry growth visibility.
For Shree Ram Twistex, Swastika Investmart said valuation at around 29-30x P/E already factors in most future growth and advised investors seeking listing gains to avoid the issue. Master Capital Services noted investors may consider it as a long-term opportunity given sector growth prospects.
Use Of Proceeds
Clean Max will use Rs 1,125 crore from fresh proceeds to repay debt, with the remainder for general corporate purposes.
Shree Ram Twistex will deploy proceeds for business expansion and operational requirements as it is entirely a fresh issue.
Which IPO Looks Better?
For listing gains, Shree Ram Twistex currently shows stronger grey market sentiment and investor traction. Clean Max, on the other hand, has stronger QIB participation but muted GMP, suggesting institutional conviction but limited short-term listing pop expectations.
For long-term investors, both issues are being viewed positively but with valuation caution. Clean Max offers exposure to the fast-growing renewable C&I power segment, while Shree Ram Twistex provides a play on India’s expanding textile exports and domestic demand.
Disclaimer:Disclaimer: The views and investment tips shared in this article are for general information purposes only. Readers are advised to consult a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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February 25, 2026, 11:52 IST
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HSBC has revealed it stripped out 1.2 billion dollars (£890 million) worth of costs last year after cutting back its senior management team, as it hiked bonuses for staff by 10%.
The global banking giant has been embarking on a sprawling simplification programme that has involved big changes to its structure, in a bid to become more “agile”.
It previously set a target to make 1.5 billion dollars (£1.1 billion) in annual cost reductions by the end of 2026, under the leadership of chief executive Georges Elhedery.
But on Wednesday, the bank revealed that it is expecting to achieve this by the end of June – six months ahead of schedule.
It follows some 1.2 billion dollars (£890 million) worth of cost savings being found during 2025 alone.
Mr Elhedery, who stepped into the top job in 2024, said that a large amount of the savings had come from the “deduplication” of jobs within the group, particularly among more senior positions.
He said this resulted in a net 15% reduction of managing director positions, which has not had any impact on the group’s revenues.
Meanwhile, HSBC revealed that it handed out bonuses worth 3.9 billion dollars (£2.9 billion) to its eligible staff during the year – a 10% increase compared with 2024.
The bank said it ensured its “highest performers had the strongest variable pay outcomes compared to the prior year”.
Mr Elhedery took home a pay packet of £6.6 million in 2025, made up of his salary and benefits, plus an annual bonus and long-term incentive award of about £4.8 million.
HSBC’s pay committee said it intends to grant the chief executive the maximum long-term incentive award worth 600% of his salary, which amounts to £9 million, for 2026-28.
The value will be subject to the bank’s performance over the next three years, and delivered in instalments.
HSBC said it was striving to create a “high-performance culture” where staff are better rewarded for work that boosts the performance of the bank.
Nevertheless, it reported lower earnings for 2025, with its pre-tax profit down about 7% year-on-year to 29.9 billion dollars (£22.1 billion).
This took into account the impact of losses related to its stake in the Chinese Bank of Communications, and restructuring costs from its simplification programme.
Shares in HSBC were up by about 6% in early trading on Wednesday.
Changes announced in the Budget mean all energy bills will see some kind of reduction, but it will vary.
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Day 3: Clean Max Enviro Energy IPO Vs Shree Ram Twistex IPO; Know GMP, Subscription And Reviews
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