Key Points
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Walmart and Costco are using artificial intelligence, data, and digital tools to deepen customer loyalty and improve the shopping experience.
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From Berkshire Hathaway’s housing expansion to Walmart’s nationwide delivery network, these companies can invest in opportunities that smaller competitors can’t match.
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When most people think of trillion-dollar stocks, they think of Nvidia and Apple. But there’s a quieter class of financial titans: companies that have built their size not on chip architecture or software ecosystems, but on the way ordinary people live, shop, eat, and spend.
These three companies are simple and foundational, and right now, each one is doing something worth watching.
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1. Walmart
Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) became the first traditional retailer to cross a $1 trillion market valuation in February 2026, and the milestone wasn’t accidental. The company’s path to the trillion-dollar club ran through technology, not store counts. Its e-commerce business now represents 18% of total revenue and grew 24% to $150 billion in fiscal 2026. Same-day delivery now reaches 95% of U.S. households, a logistics feat that most companies couldn’t execute in a decade, let alone a few years.
What’s less covered is what this means for everyday shoppers. Walmart’s AI shopping agent, Sparky, drives baskets that are 35% larger than standard shopping sessions. The company’s Wally AI tool for internal merchants helps identify out-of-stock issues in real time. These tools aren’t just about cutting costs — they’re about making sure the person shopping on a phone at 11 p.m. can find what they need and get it the next morning.
2. Costco
Costco (NASDAQ: COST) is doing something unusual in the current economic climate: Its members are spending more per visit, not less. Average transaction size rose 7.3% worldwide during its third quarter because members trust the warehouse chain to deliver value when budgets are stretched.
Membership fee income grew 13.6% in the most recent quarter, and the company now counts 82.1 million paid household members globally. The model is almost counterintuitive: Costco charges people for the privilege of shopping there, and those people reward the company with loyalty that very few consumer brands achieve. Executive memberships — the higher membership tier — account for 75.8% of worldwide sales.
For consumers, the appeal is increasingly practical. Costco’s fuel prices have been a meaningful draw during a period when gasoline costs have risen sharply, and the company has passed tariff savings directly to shoppers on categories like cookware and bedding. That’s a version of brand trust that pays dividends for decades.
4. Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB), under new CEO Greg Abel, is not the company it was a year ago. This isn’t really a criticism. It’s an observation worth sitting with.
Abel’s first major independent deal was the acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison and its merger with Clayton Homes, creating one of the U.S.’s largest homebuilding platforms. The consumer logic is direct: There is a deficit of approximately 7 million homes in the U.S., and Berkshire is now positioned to help fill it. At the same time, Berkshire made a $10 billion investment in Alphabet, bringing the Google parent into the top four Berkshire holdings alongside Coca-Cola, Apple, and American Express.
To me, Berkshire remains the most underappreciated consumer story in the market — not because it’s cheap, but because its portfolio of consumer franchises is more durable than almost anything else a retail investor can own.
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American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, American Express, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Costco Wholesale, Nvidia, and Walmart. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
