Big companies are often judged by market capitalization or headline growth, but revenue — the raw cash a business pulls in — is a blunt and revealing metric of scale. When a company starts to out-earn rivals at that scale, it can signal a structural shift in how industries and profits are being made.

In this backdrop, Amazon’s (AMZN) latest milestone grabbed headlines, as the company’s 2025 sales were about $717 billion, surpassing Walmart’s (WMT) $713 billion. This makes Amazon the top company by revenue in the Fortune 500, ending Walmart’s 13-year run.

That isn’t just a vanity stat. Much of Amazon’s lift comes from high-margin, rapidly expanding businesses beyond retail. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and advertising…