Amazon vs. Walmart: The Retail War Just Picked a Winner

2 hours ago 1

Vandita Jadeja

Sat, April 11, 2026 astatine 8:39 AM CDT 5 min read

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) reported net revealing 2 companies of astir identical standard but radically antithetic nett architectures. Amazon closed fiscal 2025 with yearly gross of $716.92 billion, portion Walmart finished fiscal 2026 with $713.16 billion. The gross spread is negligible, but the strategy spread is enormous.

Amazon (AMZN) reported yearly gross of $716.92B with AWS increasing 24% year-over-year to $35.58B and advertizing up 23% to $21.32B.
Walmart (WMT) posted $713.16B successful gross with U.S. eCommerce surging 27% and present representing 23% of nett sales, though Amazon is investing astir $200B successful 2026 CapEx versus Walmart’s disciplined $25B allocation.
Amazon is betting monolithic superior connected AI infrastructure and unreality dominance, compressing escaped currency travel near-term, portion Walmart is generating $14.92B successful escaped currency travel with a rising dividend and assertive buybacks, making Walmart the stronger near-term instrumentality communicative for investors.
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Amazon's Q4 communicative belongs to unreality and advertising, not stores. AWS grew 24% year-over-year to $35.58 billion, its fastest gait successful 13 quarters. AWS generates the lion's stock of Amazon's consolidated profit. Advertising Services added $21.32 billion, up 23%, gathering connected partnerships with Netflix, Spotify, and SiriusXM.

READ: The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 just named his apical 10 AI stocks

Walmart's 4th ran connected carnal stores fused with integer fulfillment. Global eCommerce grew 24% successful Q4, with Walmart U.S. eCommerce up 27%, present representing 23% of Walmart U.S. nett sales, a grounds high. Store-fulfilled expedited transportation grew much than 50%, and advertizing grew 37% globally including VIZIO, with Walmart Connect U.S. up 41%.

Business Driver

Amazon (Q4 2025)

Walmart (Q4 FY2026)

Primary Growth Engine	AWS + Advertising	eCommerce + Store Fulfillment
Revenue Growth	13.6% YoY	5.6% YoY
Q4 Operating Income	$24.98B (+17.8%)	$8.71B (+10.8%)
Free Cash Flow (FY)	$11.19B (-65.95%)	$14.92B (+17.88%)

Amazon plans to walk astir $200 cardinal successful superior expenditures crossed Amazon successful 2026, focused connected AI infrastructure, customized silicon, and outer internet. Jassy called it a stake connected "seminal opportunities similar AI, chips, robotics, and debased world orbit satellites." This spending crushes escaped currency travel near-term.

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