SEATTLE — Amazon is now bigger than Walmart.
The online retailer's credited the profit to continued strength of its cloud-computing business and strong revenue growth on Thursday, when its investors pushed stock up 17 percent in aftermarket trading.
But before Seattle-based Amazon surpassed a longtime rival, it celebrated a surprise second-quarter profit on its 20th birthday Thursday with an exclusive concert by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis at CenturyLink Field.
Social media users said the "amazing" show came with "minimal corporate chit chat and plenty of Seattle love."
Macklemore's music could be heard in the afternoon on Thursday, but Amazon and employees alike didn't share much about the event until it was well underway in the evening.
Amazon's concert isn't the music duo's first corporate event. They a held a private T-Mobile party last year and another concert for AT&T at CES in 2014.
The morning after the concert, Amazon officially passed Walmart
The stock jump from Thursday's after-market trading held in Friday's trading, which is when Amazon's stock market value officially surpassed that of Walmart Stores Inc.
The sharp increase in shares brought Amazon's market value to $259.1 billion, meaning is now valued higher than the world's largest retailer.
Bentonville, Arkansas,-based Wal-Mart Stores is valued at about $231.7 billion. The company, with 11,767 stores worldwide, still has much higher sales, $485.65 billion in the year ended Jan. 31, compared with Amazon's $89 billion in annual revenue last year.
But investors applauded Amazon's ability to keep costs in check while growing its revenue.
Amazon has held a long-time strategy of investing the money it earns back into the company, resulting in quarterly losses or thin profits. But helped by surging revenue, it has begun to turn a bigger profit more frequently, although results vary quarter to quarter.
In the first quarter, for example, Amazon reported a loss, though it was smaller than expected.