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Walmart’s market capitalisation has surpassed $1tn, putting the largest US retail chain in an exclusive club dominated by tech groups.
The Arkansas-based company reached the milestone on Tuesday, capping a rally in which its shares have more than doubled in the past two years, outpacing the blue-chip S&P 500 index.
Walmart has spent tens of billions of dollars to develop an ecommerce business that is now a credible competitor to Amazon.
Founded by Sam Walton with a single store in 1962, the retailer has expanded to nearly 11,000 stores worldwide.
Analysts forecast Walmart’s annual revenue will have topped $700bn when it reports results this month, though they expect that Amazon’s figure will surpass the retain chain’s for the first time, according to Visible Alpha.
Walmart’s market valuation remains well below the $2.6tn of Amazon market, the biggest company in ecommerce.
Walmart has benefited from investor appetite for AI, having last October partnered with OpenAI to allow shoppers to complete purchases on ChatGPT.
The move positioned the company “at the forefront of AI-driven retail transformation rather than being disrupted by it”, Morgan Stanley analysts said last week.
David Schick, managing partner of research firm Optimal Advisory, said Walmart’s “mix of labour, sourcing and technology” underpinned its success.
He added that the company had benefited from “investing during uncertain times” while competing with “formidable” rivals such as Amazon and Costco.
Walmart joins nine other US public companies with a market cap above $1tn. Nvidia tops the list, with a market value of about $4.5tn, followed by Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Broadcom.
Shares in the retailer rose as much as 1.6 per cent to $126 in early trading on Tuesday.
Walmart breached the $1tn mark during the chain’s first week under chief executive John Furner, who took over after his predecessor Doug McMillon retired at the weekend after more than a decade at the helm.
Furner, a veteran Walmart executive, has been outspoken about investing further in automation and AI.
In a symbolic and strategic shift that reflected its digital focus, Walmart recently switched its stock market listing to the Nasdaq exchange and joined the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index, drawing passive funds that track the benchmark.
Walmart, a leading US goods importer, has contended with tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in the past year.
Walmart and its suppliers have been absorbing about two-thirds of tariff costs for general merchandise, but passing on another third to consumers, resulting in a 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent price increase for these items, Jefferies estimated.
The company’s surging valuation will further increase the wealth of the Walton family, who as a group form company’s largest shareholder. Their 44 per cent aggregate stake in Walmart is now worth about $443bn.
Walmart and Berkshire Hathaway are the only non-tech US companies valued at more than $1tn, according to Bloomberg data.
Eli Lilly briefly joined the $1tn club last year but has slipped below the threshold over the past few months.
Additional reporting by George Steer in New York