Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods among ‘most Influential’ companies in the world
Several U.S. retailers are among the businesses credited with “shaping our world” in an annual listing.
Time has revealed its fifth-annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list, which spotlights the world’s most influential businesses of 2025. To assemble the list, Time solicited nominations across sectors, and polled its global network of contributors and correspondents, as well as outside experts.
“No single data point or financial metric makes a TIME100 Company,” wrote Time editors. “Instead, we looked at a mosaic of qualities, studying impact, innovation, ambition, and success, each in the forms that take shape today.
Here are the U.S. retailers that made the list (with comments from Time).
- Aldi: Although its parent company is based in Germany, its U.S. division is the country’s fastest-growing grocer (and third largest by number of locations). It opened 120 stores in 2024 and plans to open a company-record 225 more this year — part of a five-year plan to add 800 stores. Nearly all (90%) of Aldi’s products are private label. In January, it issued its first-ever Price Leadership Report, which calculated an average cost savings of 36% over other grocery chains. The company plans to end use of any polluting refrigerants by 2035, one of the first U.S. food retailers to make this commitment.
- Amazon: Amazon started out to make shopping more convenient, but it now also a leader in cloud computing, and has used that expertise to become a major force in AI, according to Time. The company is designing its own chips and building the world’s largest AI computer cluster in Texas in an effort to gain even more cloud computing market share. AI dominance, Amazon says, will make each of its divisions more powerful.
- Dick’s Sporting Goods: The country’s largest sporting goods retailer is proving that the sharp decline of brick-and-mortar stores is not universal. In 2024, Dick’s opened seven “House of Sport” stores, where shoppers can try out climbing gear on indoor walls, run on outdoor tracks, bat balls and more. The locations (there are 22 total) average more than 100,000 sq. ft., Dick’s plans to open 16 more House of Sport locations this year, with as many as 100 planned by 2027. In May, the company announced it would purchase Foot Locker for $2.4 billion.
- Gap: The company is credited with providing a valuable lesson in making old(ish) brands new again under CEO Richard Dickson and creative director Zac Posen. The company's brands — including Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy — were flagging for years but have regained buzz and market share.
- Walmart: Corporate behemoths can get complacent, notes Time, but Walmart is playing against type. The company’s strategy to revamp its e-commerce offerings and attract more affluent customers has been paying off handsomely, according to Time. Walmart’s stock price surged 72% from January to December 2024, outpacing rivals Costco and Amazon. Among other things, Walmart is now the U.S.’s largest drone delivery retailer.
See the full 2025 TIME100 list here: time.com/100companies