Walmart joins the trillion-dollar club, becoming only the third non-tech American firm to do so

Walmart joins the trillion-dollar club, becoming only the third non-tech American firm to do so

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Walmart’s market capitalization crossed the $1 trillion mark for the first time on Tuesday, making it the first traditional retailer to reach the milestone — and joining a club dominated by big tech.

One short of a dozen

So far, only 11 US companies have ever reached the four-comma club.

Tech behemoths such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and Alphabet crossed the threshold years ago and have since raced far beyond it, now competing in the $4 trillion+ range. Nevertheless, it’s still a remarkable achievement for the 63-year-old retail giant, which joins just two other non-tech firms to have ever reached $1 trillion — Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly, though the latter has since slipped back below the milestone.

After very little growth from 2000 to 2010, Walmart’s stock has been on a pretty relentless run for much of the last decade — a rally that has recently accelerated, rising roughly 15% year-to-date and about 28% over the past year, far outperforming the S&P 500 and pulling ahead of major retail rivals like Amazon, Costco, and Target.

The rally reflects Walmart’s recent success in pulling in both price-sensitive shoppers and higher-income consumers, a thriving high-margin advertising business, and the expansion of its e-commerce business and same-day delivery, which now reaches 95% of US households. Recent AI partnerships with Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, along with the stock’s addition to the Nasdaq-100 Index, have only helped improve investor sentiment.

The milestone comes amid a leadership transition, with John Furner taking over as CEO on February 1, succeeding longtime veteran Doug McMillon. Walmart is set to report fourth-quarter earnings later this month.