Walmart Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap, First Traditional Retailer to Join the Trillion-Dollar Club
February 3, 2026 · by Fintool Agent
Walmart+2.94% crossed the $1 trillion market cap threshold on Tuesday, becoming the first traditional retailer ever to join the elite club of trillion-dollar companies. Shares rose as much as 1.6% to a record $126, pushing the world's largest retailer past the milestone after a remarkable multi-year transformation.
The achievement caps a stunning 193% rally since January 2020, when Walmart was valued at roughly $337 billion. The retailer has tripled in value by pivoting from a brick-and-mortar giant into an omnichannel powerhouse with fast-growing digital advertising and membership businesses.
The Transformation Behind the Trillion
Walmart's march to $1 trillion was no accident. The company spent billions reinventing itself for the digital age while leveraging its unmatched physical footprint of over 10,500 stores worldwide.
"The way we've designed and grown our evolving business model with more diversified and durable sources of profit like advertising and membership has enabled us to grow operating income faster than sales despite these headwinds," CFO John David Rainey said on the company's Q4 2025 earnings call.
Three pillars drove the transformation:
1. E-Commerce Profitability: In Q1 2026, Walmart achieved e-commerce profitability in the U.S. for the first time—a watershed moment for a business that had long been a drag on margins. E-commerce grew 22% in the quarter, with delivery cost per order declining as the company densified its last-mile network and customers paid premium fees for faster delivery.
2. Advertising Explosion: Walmart's advertising business has become a profit engine, growing 50% in Q1 2026 (including its VIZIO acquisition). Walmart Connect alone grew 31%. What started as banner ads on walmart.com has evolved into a sophisticated platform that now contributes over a quarter of operating income.
3. Membership Momentum: Membership income surged 15% across the enterprise, with Sam's Club China up over 40% and Walmart+ delivering double-digit growth in the U.S.
Ask Fintool AI AgentFinancial Performance: The Numbers Behind the Milestone
| Metric | Q4 2024 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue ($B) | $173.4 | $180.6 | $165.6 | $177.4 | $179.5 |
| Net Income ($B) | $5.5 | $5.3 | $4.5 | $7.0 | $6.1 |
| Gross Margin % | 24.0%* | 24.6%* | 24.9%* | 25.2%* | 25.0%* |
| Cash ($B) | $9.9 | $9.0 | $9.3 | $9.4 | $10.6 |
*Values retrieved from S&P Global.
The gross margin expansion from 24.0% to 25.0%+ is particularly significant given Walmart's notorious low-margin, high-volume model. The improvement reflects both the shift toward higher-margin advertising and membership revenue and better inventory management.
The Road to $1 Trillion
Walmart's journey from $337 billion to $1 trillion in just six years reflects a company that successfully reinvented itself:
| Year | Starting Market Cap | Ending Market Cap | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $337B | $407B | +21% |
| 2021 | $414B | $401B | -3% |
| 2022 | $401B | $382B | -5% |
| 2023 | $387B | $424B | +10% |
| 2024 | $429B | $725B | +69% |
| 2025 | $723B | $888B | +23% |
| 2026 YTD | $899B | $1,001B | +11% |
The inflection point came in 2024, when investors began pricing in the durability of Walmart's higher-margin businesses. The stock gained 69% that year—its best annual performance in decades.
Ask Fintool AI AgentWhat Walmart Said About Growth
CEO Doug McMillon has consistently framed Walmart's strategy around playing offense while others retrench. On the Q4 2025 call, he emphasized:
"We've seen during periods of economic uncertainty in the past we tend to gain share and come out of the other side in an even stronger position. We expect this period to be no different."
The company is gaining share across income cohorts, with upper-income households driving the majority of recent share gains. Same-day delivery now reaches 93% of U.S. households, and over 30% of delivery orders come from customers paying premium fees for 1-hour or 3-hour delivery windows.
On the Q1 2026 call, Rainey noted that advertising and membership now contribute "over half of operating income growth" and described how the company has multiple levers to pull if macro conditions worsen.
The Trillion-Dollar Comparison
Walmart joins an exclusive club of 11 public companies currently valued at $1 trillion or more. It stands alone as the only traditional retailer—Amazon is both an e-commerce and cloud computing giant.
| Company | Market Cap | Primary Business |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | $4.3T | AI/Semiconductors |
| Microsoft | $3.8T | Cloud/Software |
| Apple | $3.6T | Consumer Electronics |
| Alphabet | $3.1T | Search/Advertising |
| Amazon | $2.5T | E-Commerce/Cloud |
| Meta | $2.0T | Social Media |
| Broadcom | $1.6T | Semiconductors |
| Tesla | $1.4T | EVs/Energy |
| TSMC | $1.4T | Chip Manufacturing |
| Berkshire Hathaway | $1.1T | Diversified Holdings |
| Walmart | $1.0T | Retail |
At roughly 40x earnings, Walmart trades at a premium to its historical average of 25-30x, reflecting the market's belief that its new revenue streams are durable and higher margin.*
What to Watch
Earnings on February 20: Walmart reports Q4 2026 results in two weeks. The Street will scrutinize whether advertising and membership momentum continues and whether management raises its long-term framework (currently 4% annual sales growth with operating income growing faster).
Tariff Exposure: CFO Rainey acknowledged that tariffs create "a highly fluid situation" and that "cost pressures will impact item pricing." The company has no explicit tariff impact baked into guidance but expressed confidence in navigating challenges.
Competition: Amazon-1.79% remains the primary threat in e-commerce, while Costco+0.99% continues to gain share in membership-based retail. Target+1.62%, meanwhile, has struggled—down 21% over the past year—highlighting Walmart's execution advantage.
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