Walmart is a Functional Retail Empire
The largest corporation in the world by both revenue and employees is an American family business. It has successfully albeit slowly adapted to the internet age.
By revenue, the largest company in the world is Walmart. As of February 2025, the Arkansas-based corporation totaled a yearly revenue of over $670 billion.1 Walmart is also the largest private employer in the world, with over 2 million employees.2 Publicly-traded and worth about $825 billion as of February 2025 (WMT), Walmart is first and foremost an American grocery chain. In 2023, over 80% of revenue came from the United States, of which nearly two-thirds was from groceries and consumable goods.3 The rest of the company’s revenue comes from diverse retail categories. In 2023, U.S. Walmart-branded stores derived 60% of revenue from groceries, 26% from general merchandise ranging from electronics to furniture to apparel, and 12% from “health and wellness” products, including Walmart’s in-house pharmacies.4 Walmart also operates its own online or “e-commerce” sales operations, which recently surpassed $100 billion in yearly sales worldwide, according to the company.5 Walmart is a family business and the eponymous Walton family were reported to be the wealthiest family in the world in December 2024, with a net worth of over $430 billion.6